Dreambending
by corialanus
Summary: Azula breaks out of prison a year after the war with a plan to rule as the new firelord, manipulate and seduce the Avatar. Will Aang fall for it and will the fire princess find that she actually can care about someone other than herself?
1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1 Vessel of Destruction

**A/N: Hello I absolutely love Azula and I have yet to find a fan-fic that I felt was satisfactory for her being the main villain after the gaaang wins the war so here is my effort. There will be Aang and Azula romance, but don't worry it will be an Azula style romance so plenty of lies and manipulation in an effort to corrupt our pure and innocent Avatar. The story will alternate mostly between Azula and Aang's perspective maybe with another characters thrown in every once and a while and it will be a long and epic multi-chapter fic hope you enjoy. Oh yea I don't own Azula or Avatar.**

It had been 11months and 29 days since the Avatar had defeated her father and she had been thrown in this "hospital" to rot. Azula was so angry at herself for becoming weak and losing it right at the end, she didn't know why it happened and after a few weeks in here she had snapped out of it. She had decided to punish herself by rotting in here for a while but she knew that in a day she was being transferred to the Earth kingdom to stand trial for her crimes in Ba Sing Se and elsewhere, that was when she would free herself.

Late at night when no one was watching she had been honing her fire-bending skills and had discovered something amazing. Using her lightning bending she had discovered that there was electricity in peoples brains and she had been honing her skills on her fellow inmates at night to manipulate their dreams into what she wanted them to see. She just loved how brilliant and powerful she was and whenever she thought of that it made her even more angry at her weakness that led to her being defeated by her pathetic brother and that peasant water tribe girl, but she knew that what had happened was over and now if she was to rule the world as the greatest firelord ever she needed a new plan and she had hatched a brilliant one over these past 2 months as she mastered her dreambending.

She knew that her greatest enemy was the Avatar, and though Azula had defeated him before he was now much stronger and he had an entire world full of allies whereas she had no one but herself. So instead of defeating the Avatar in battle she had decided that the best way to win was to make her greatest enemy her greatest ally instead. She knew this would be quite difficult but she would use his compassion and caring to make him believe she was trying to reform and she would lay all her trust in him and then she just knew that someone as pure as him would forgive her and take it on as his own personal mission to rehabilitate her . Then as their bond grew she would manipulate and deceive everyone around him, and strip down all his other relationships until he lost himself in her, then she would make his heart burn with the fire that hers did and they would conquer the world, the Avatar as her vessel of destruction.

But first things first she needed to break out of jail tomorrow and to make matters more difficult she would have to do it without killing or seriously hurting anyone if she was going to convince the Avatar that she was changing for the good. No matter she was Princess Azula the greatest firebender to ever exist, and the most intelligent, manipulative, and beautiful woman the world had ever known, so she had no doubt that she would be a free woman tomorrow.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2 Thoughts on the back of a bison

**AN: This is the first chapter from the perspective of Aang, he has been dealing with a lot of mundane Avatar duties and has a relationship with Katara but sees her too little.**

Aang always loved these night time rides on the back of Appa his sky bison. It gave him time to reflect on all the craziness and or tediousness of his day. Today had been yet another useless day of tracking leads on Azula the escaped fire princess, he had been staying at Firelord Zuko's palace for the past 4 days since she had broken free, trying to track down the one enemy who had actually killed him.

He missed Katara but was desperately glad that she had agreed in her letter to stay away from the fire nation and stay at the South Pole because he knew that Katara would be on the short list of people Azula would be looking to kill. He laughed to himself as he realized he should probably worry because his name would be right next to Katara's on the list, but he could never worry about his own safety as much as he worried about the beautiful waterbending goddess that had pulled him from that iceberg just about two years ago. Thinking of her bright blue eyes and intoxicating smile just made his heart fly a million times higher than Appa could ever go.

He saw the mountain peak that told him he was about 5 minutes from the Southern Air Temple that he had been staying at and trying to rebuild some, when he wasn't staying at his house in Ba Sing Se or with Katara and Hakoda at the south pole or at Zuko's palace in the fire nation. As the Avatar he had to have a lot of homes, but he loved being with Katara the most, but a close second was the serenity of his childhood home at the Southern Air Temple. He needed to try and rebuild it because some Earth Kingdom herbalists were trying to develop some sort of elixir from his blood that may give some non-bending people from the other 3 nations a chance to be an airbender in an effort to start a new Air Nomad tribe. If they ever succeeded he would use the rebuilt temple as a school to train them. He was unsure of this plan, but he supposed for the sake of the future Avatar cycle there needed to be new Air Nomads and as much as he may want his kids to be that he still felt like he was years away from even trying or thinking about that.

Aang shook his head and said "Appa boy I'm thinking way too heavy thoughts, I wish I had Sokka hear to tell me a joke, or Momo to do something funny". Appa made a grunt in response to this and Aang laughed as he patted him on the head and said "Nice try buddy, that was funnier than some of Sokka's jokes". Since it was a full moon he decided that he would read Katara's letter he got after Azula escaped one more time before he set down at the temple.

_Aang,_

_You know I can take care of myself, but since you said that you are cashing in_

_the one that I owe you from taking you to that horrendous party at the North Pole_

_I'll agree and stay away from the fire kingdom for now, but if she's not in custody_

_in a week there is no way I'm staying down here past that. Please Please Please_

_be careful, of all the baddies to escape, she's the one who... I can't even think _

_about it so just be warned that if she hurts you again I'm gonna kill you. Oh well_

_I miss you sooooooo much and Sokka is visiting so he says Hi as does Momo. Kisses_

_Love,_

_Katara_

He was thinking that maybe he would skip going to the fire nation tomorrow when he woke up and fly down to the South Pole to see Katara, honestly how much damage could Azula do in one day. He actually didn't want to think to much about the answer cause he was sure that it would be scary. Since Sokka was down there he decided he was absolutely going to go to the South Pole tomorrow, it would be nice to see his best friend and his girlfriend all at once. As Appa approached the spot where he always landed Aang decided that he would just skip meditating tonight so that he could go to sleep a little earlier so that he could wake up way early and maybe surprise his friends at the South Pole for breakfast.

Appa landed and Aang hopped down, he smiled as he saw his bison companion dash off towards his giant pile of hay as the night of flying must have surely made him hungry. He was considering spending the night sleeping on Appa like he did all the time when he was traveling the world with his best friends, but it was a little breezy so he thought he'd retire to his bed. He was slowly walking up the stairs and looking at the beautiful moon, remembering Yue and how inspirational she was. He got to the top step and was shocked to see someone who was huddled over and covered in some very ratty clothing near the entrance to the temple. He didn't even know who knew about this place but from the state they were in he would not turn them away, whoever they were. Aang said loudly and confidently "Hello, I'm not sure who you are but I'd be glad to help you in anyway I can" as he beamed the biggest smile he could muster. As the strange figure stood and began to turn a simple sentence escaped her lips, but those may have been the two most terrifying words Aang had heard in the year since the war had ended "Hello Avatar."


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3 Azula's Plea

**AN: This is an Azulaang so don't be thrown off by the Kataang fluff in last chapter. I do like Kataang I think it's cute, but in this story things are going to be tough for Katara especially. This chapter starts from Azula's perspective then switches to Aang's.**

Azula turned to look at the Avatar after she had greeted him. She noticed he had switched to a fighting stance and had his glider staff twirling defensively in front of him. This was phase 1 of her plan, convince the Avatar to help her reform, though the quickest and easiest, if she couldn't do this she knew she would have to fight him and even if she won, the whole world would still be against her. Azula said " You can put down your staff Avatar I'm not here to fight", "I'm not going to fall for your tricks Azula." was his reply. Azula knelt before him, god how she hated doing that, "just listen to me speak for 5 minutes Avatar and then if you want me too I will willingly go back to the Earth Kingdom to stand trial." Aang looked skeptical but put his staff down nonetheless and said " Ok I will listen".

"Thank you" Azula replied as she got up from her kneeling position. "As you know I escaped on my way to being transferred to the Earth Kingdom to stand trial but what you did not know is that once I was there they were going to have me executed." Aang gasped, "That is not true I never heard that" he replied. Azula continued "The Earth Kingdom kept it a secret from you and my brother cause they knew you would not allow it, but once I was in there hands the generals would take whatever actions you would retaliate with to avenge the shame they felt from me conquering Ba Sing Se." Aang appeared to be mulling it over, but she could tell that he was starting to believe it, now was the time for her to pull at the compassion that was so abundant in his heart and ask for his help and forgiveness which she just knew that he would have to give to her.

"Look Avatar, I know that I have done so many things wrong to the entire world and especially to you, and I know that I am still struggling with who I am, and there is still some darkness left inside me, but I want to change. If I go back to the Earth Kingdom they will kill me, I'm just a 17 year old girl, I know that I've done more wrong than any other girl my age, but I am truly hopeful that if I live I can better myself and perhaps even better the world one day." She wiped some of the tears from her cheek that she had mustered during her speech. "That is why I came here to you, I want to say I am truly sorry for almost killing you and all your friends and I know that you have no reason to but I am pleading with you to forgive me and trust in me and give me a second chance." Aang seemed stunned by what he was hearing, he sat down on the ground.

Azula sensed that she was getting to that compassionate part of his soul and knew to push to get what she wanted. She continued "I need hope that the world can forgive me and I can change, the only person who can provide me with that is the same man who gave hope to the entire world these past two years, I need you Aang to forgive me and save me." The Avatar looked like his mind was racing and she saw when she called him Aang that it looked like she hit a soft spot right in his heart, she knew she always called him Avatar and hoped that by calling him Aang finally that she would cement in his brain the sincerity of all this. She meekly said "It is all up to you now, if you reject me as the monster that I was and still may be I will accept it and face my fate in the Earth Kingdom, but it would mean more to me than you could ever know if you forgave me.".

Aang stood up and said "If you truly mean all this of course I will forgive you, but what does all this mean, where would you go, what would you do?". "This is where the favor and trust that I ask of you gets even greater Avatar, as I said before I know I'm not fully healed of the darkness in me, alone in the world I'm not sure I wouldn't revert to my old ways even if I didn't want to, that is why I want to stay here with you, so you can watch me and help me heal my soul." she replied. Once again Aang looked stunned, "Here, with me?" She choked back " I know it is so much to ask, but I'm scared of how the rest of the world would treat me, even my brother, I caused so much pain and agony you are the only person in the entire world that I trust to heal and love me til I'm ready to face the world as a new better person who will then take whatever the world has to throw at me. I want to stay hear and learn the ways of the Air Nomads, the peace and tranquility of it all, how to meditate, how to let the universe cleanse my dark soul, and I want you to teach me. I will stay here quietly while you consider this and if you reject me I'll be ready to go with you to Ba Sing Se." She sat down pleased with herself she was confident that that little performance was enough to sway the Avatar to her plan.

Aang stood there of all the things that first entered his mind when he first heard Azula's voice this was no where near any of them. That may have been the most heartfelt and remorseful plea that he had ever heard from anyone and to come from the Fire Princess who had once killed him was too hard to believe. Yet there he stood with her quietly awaiting him to pronounce her sentence, death in Ba Sing Se, or a chance at a new life starting here in the Southern Air Temple. He knew deep down that there was no way he could reject her, he wasn't sure if that was all true but he believed that there was good in everyone, and the only person at risk if she agreed to stay here would be him and he was willing to jeopardize himself if it meant redeeming a lost soul, plus it might be nice to have company around here even if said company was someone who had killed him. " Ok Azula I will let you stay here with me and become my first student of the ways of the Air Nomads, but I have one condition, there will be no more calling me Avatar if we're to be friends you must call me Aang." he finished with a smile.

She stood up with a beautiful smile on her face and he thought how he only saw that dark and evil smile when something terrible happened, but now that had changed and he saw it for something good, perhaps it was no longer an evil smile. She approached him and gave him an awkward hug and then a very light kiss on the cheek, which made him blush. She said as she backed away"Thank you so much Aang, I just hope that I can repay the kindness and trust you have shown in me." He pulled her back in for another hug, " I know you will Azula I just know it, you coming here and showing weakness and fear to me your greatest enemy was the bravest thing I have ever seen anyone do." She ducked her head down in what seemed like shame, he put his hand on her chin and lifted her head to look her right in those beautiful golden eyes of hers and said " I mean it Azula, I knew all along your brother would do what was right, and now I have an even stronger feeling about you" He saw tears well up in her eyes and he pulled her into their 3rd hug in the past two minutes, she put her head on his shoulder and sobbed a little. Aang felt so good and strong holding her there, he never imagined Azula who was so strong and terrifying could open up to anyone like this. In this moment he had never felt so glad to be the Avatar it gave her the confidence to trust him like he was so sure she had never trusted anyone else this way. This hug that he was sharing with her felt like one of the most intimate moments of his life and it gave a warmth in him the like that only Katara had ever produced. He just held her tightly as he needed to convey to her that he would always be there for her and that he would do anything to make sure that the world would know her as the beautiful remorseful women that he held in his arms tight now.

Azula pulled back from him and said "Thank you Aang, you will never know how truly grateful I am to have you here to help me. I need to rest now where should I go?". "Pick any bed in the temple, other than mine, haha" she noticed a slight blush as he said this. She started to walk towards the door as she saw Aang stare up at the sky, she loved how easy that had been, a few tears and a very good acting job and she had the Avatar eating right out of the palm of her hand. As she found the first room with a bed in it she laid down and thought about what had transpired. The Avatar confused her so much, how could he be so powerful and yet so naïve to just let such a great threat sleep in the same house as him no questions asked, he just trusted her. She could easily kill him tonight, but that was not the plan she needed him to be her's and thinking about the way he held her and looked at her she knew this may be even easier than she expected.

She thought about when he had touched her chin and looked in her eyes, she thought that he had wanted to kiss her and as much as she wanted to deny it to herself she knew that her lips had ached to feel his against hers. It must be that year in prison, I guess that being locked up can make you feel something for almost anyone she laughed to herself. The worst part about it though as she closed her eyes was she knew that it wasn't just that. That 3rd hug made her feel something inside herself that she didn't quite understand, it just wasn't possible that maybe she did have some sort of feelings for Aang, ughh she cursed at herself for using his name there. She was just lonely and he was just so nice and innocent it was impossible to not feel some kind of warmth, that love and compassion must just burn so hot off of him. Oh well her fury and anger would soon burn hot into him as phase one was complete, tomorrow she would have to start planning for phase two, driving a wedge between the Avatar and the water tribe peasant girl and the rest of his friends, and becoming his most loyal and loving companion til he needed her like a drug.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4 A date with the Avatar

_Aang was holding a sobbing Fire Princess in his arms holding onto her as tight as he had ever held onto anything. He said " Azula it's ok you are not alone anymore I'm here for you." Through sobs she choked out " I know you really hate me Aang I know you could never care about me the way you promise you will." with that she forcefully pulled her self out of Aang's embrace, he had never felt so empty as when her heat abandoned him, and instinctively he grabbed her by the arm and pulled her into him his lips greedily crashing down on her tear soaked face. His tongue would let no barrier hold him back as he wanted to feel every inch of Azula's mouth. She was taken aback by the passion in his kiss and surrendered herself to him as the kiss lasted well over a minute. When he finally pulled back he put his thumb to her cheek gently wiping away a tear that had been trapped there and looked as deep into her bright golden eyes as he could and said " Azula I could never hate you, even when you were trying to kill me I always thought you were the most beautiful sight in the entire universe, and now that you are here in my arms I may never leave this temple again. I want to heal your soul and I want you to fill me with everything that you have because I thought when I was pulled out of that Iceberg I was brought back to life but now I know that it wasn't until your lips were on mine that I truly was re-awakened. He felt her take his hand that was on her face and place it on her breast just above her heart as she leaned in to kiss him again. As their lips locked he felt her heart beat so fast it was like she was on deaths door, but he knew that if she felt anything like he was feeling, she was on death's door because to lose her, his fire princess Azula would be the greatest pain that any man throughout the entire span of history had felt and he would know because as the Avatar he had been there for all of history. There lips broke apart and he felt the heat of her breath on his ear as she whispered seductively to him "Avatar I need you inside me right now, I need you to be my first and only love my always love , I need us to shatter this world with the heat of our passion, my fires burn blue when I __bend but the fire burning all throughout my body burns white hot right now." as she took his hand in hers and guided it inside of her pants..._

_A_ang awoke sweating and blushing in a way that he had never experienced before. He thought to himself what the hell was that. He had just had the most passionate and intense dream of his life, his heart was racing his body was soaked in sweat and the dream that had caused all this was about Azula! That was just madness, he knew that last night was special and he was so glad that Azula needed him but he couldn't believe that dream. Stop it Aang he berated himself, he went to bed his mind swirling in confusion and doubt about all the drama last night so of course he had some weird dream about it that was natural. As he got up and put on his pants and shirt he noticed it was just past dawn and he felt he would be able to make it to the south pole to have a fun day, he just hoped he wouldn't see Azula before he headed out, he'd just leave her a note saying to make herself at home.

As he headed out into the courtyard in front of the temple he saw blue flames dancing as Azula was practicing her bending. Damn he thought to himself I did not want to see her, as he approached he rubbed his head and said "morning Azula". She turned to him a smile on her face and said "Aang good to see you, it is so nice to be able to practice my bending out here in the open again after being cooped up for so long." She ran up to him and hugged him and whispered in his ear "Thank you so much again Aang it mean's the world to me." Having her hug him and the feeling her breath on his ear sent a wave of electricity down his whole body as he blushed profusely and stumbled out "Oh-Oh you know it's not rea-really a problem glad I can help you." He stumbled away as she said " I thought if you trusted me enough we could have a little sparring session who better to test myself again then the Avatar." "No Azula I can't." he replied, he saw her smile fade and her head sink, oh how he missed that smile, shut up Aang he told himself, "Azula don't worry, it's not about trust I trust you with my life." He said as he pulled her into another hug, "It's just I have avatar duties that I have to get to early this morning, I'm gonna buy you a whole bunch of new clothes while I 'm out, you're a princess you shouldn't be in rags, and I promise when I return this evening we can spar all night if you want." "Ok Aang, but one thing, you have to promise me that you won't tell anyone about me being here, I only trust you I'm not ready to face anyone else yet." He could see a small tear starting to form, he replied quickly "Of course my lady anything for a princess." as he got down on his knee and kissed her hand.

He saw her smile come back a little and that made his heart do a little jump, he said getting up from his knee " While I'm gone look around everything here is now yours, make yourself at home in anyway you want." He turned and headed towards Appa's stable turning back to look one more time at her as she went back to shooting blue flames into the sky. He threw a few melons in front of Appa as he hopped on the freshly awakened sky bison's back and said " We've got a new roommate boy, don't worry she used to be scary but now she is something else." a smile crossing his lips as he then cried "Yip Yip" and Appa took off towards the south pole.

Riding through the sky on the back of Appa gave him time to reflect on what had happened in the past 10 hours. Somehow he had made friends with and was living with the girl who just a little over a year ago had killed him. Plus what the hell was with that kissing her hand and my lady stuff, where did that come from. Plus he realized he called visiting Katara "Avatar duties" that wasn't a duty, she was the love of his life and seeing her was his favorite thing not a duty, but for some reason he just didn't want to tell Azula that he was seeing Katara. He also felt incredible guilt about seeing Katara, he knew that he was not going to be able to tell her about Azula staying with him not only because he promised Azula but also because Katara or any of his other friends for that matter wouldn't understand why he had to do it and would think he was crazy. Heh he laughed to himself in all honesty he did think he was a little bit crazy. The worst part was that dream, how would he feel if Katara were living alone with someone that she had dreamed about like that, it would drive him crazy. Oh well she would never know and the dream was just a dream there was no way anything was going to happen between he and Azula. He just reminded himself and Appa that on their way home they needed to stop and get Azula some clothing.

Finally the little village that Katara called home came in to view he could see Sokka's boat parked in the little port Zuko had made oh so long ago. Appa touched down and Aang jumped off, apparently Sokka had seen him coming and ran out to greet Aang. He pulled him into a big hug and Sokka said " How you doing Mr. hero." "Not bad Sokka, when I heard you were here I knew I just had to blow off my duties for the day and come kick your butt in a snowball fight." Aang retorted, Sokka laughed back " You know I'll destroy you, remember no bending in south pole snowball fights" In response to this Aang did a quick arm movement and dumped a giant load of snow right on Sokka's head. He laughed as Sokka screamed, "Hey not fair" Aang replied "don't worry Sokka I'll let you pummel me in a non bending snow battle after I see your sister, where is she?" Sokka laughed "Oh she is still asleep she was out waaaaaaay late last night you see Haaru came to visit and they were out all night." Aang felt a panic in his head, Haaru that earthbender boy was here to see Katara oh no the spirits are already punishing me for having that dream about Azula, but then he saw the smirk widening on Sokka's face and realized Sokka just told him that to get a rise out of him and it had worked. Sokka taunted at him "OOOOOH someone is in love!" with that Aang swung his glider staff and hit Sokka square in the chest with an air blast and shot him 50 yards out of the village.

Aang walked into Hakoda and Katara's igloo and saw Hakoda sitting at the table and whispered with a knowing smile "Hello Avatar Aang, I take it you are here to see someone other than me, she's asleep in her room go wake her." Aang parted the animal skin and saw his beautiful angel lying there under a walrusbear skin blanket. He bent down and put the softest kiss on her forehead, he saw a slight smile as she slowly in her sleep worded "mmmmm that felt wonderful Zuko" Aang fell back what, Zuko she dreams about Zuko, but then saw her big blue eyes open and her gorgeous smile beam at him "calm down Avatar you know I only have eyes for airbenders." she joked at him. He bent down to give her a kiss on the lips this time soft and gentle, she flung off the blanket and got up saying in an exceedingly pompous voice "To what do I owe the pleasure of the great and might Avatar Aang on this fine morning". "I heard that there was a tragedy involving a young waterbending master, something about missing her boyfriend far too much." Aang retorted in an even more pompous voice. She just laughed and hugged him and gave him a deep kiss and said " Thank you Aang I had been missing you far too much, this is a wonderful surprise."

They walked out hand in hand and enjoyed breakfast with Hakoda and Sokka. Aang loved the south pole and the people there who gave him this new wonderful life as the Avatar free from the Iceberg and free from the tyranny of the Fire Nation. After breakfast he proceeded to get absolutely destroyed by Sokka in a non-bending snowball fight, then he and Katara went for a walk and a quick penguin sled recreating what Aang always called their first date. But by mid afternoon he said his goodbyes as he knew he had to make a detour to the Earth Kingdom to buy Azula her new clothes and so he could get back tonight in time so that they can spar.

This had been a great day and he was really looking forward to tonight he hadn't really fought much in the year since the war had been over and to have a chance against a firebender like Azula he would have to put all of his skills in the four elements to get the best of her. Plus having spent the day with Katara having fun and being a couple again had eliminated all the doubts that had arisen from his encounter with Azula the night before, in the dream, and this morning... Or at least he thought it had.


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5 Azula vs Aang

Azula watched as the Avatar flew off on his bison. She smiled as she threw a quick spin kick and let off 2 blasts of flame. The look on his face and the way he stuttered after she hugged him and whispered in his ear made her sure that the dream she had planted in his head the night before did it's job. When dreambending she had no control over exactly what happened in the dream she could just push the victims mind in a general direction and then their subconscious filled in the blanks. She imagined the Avatars subconscious did a number on him last night. She had no doubts that she could easily manipulate the Avatar now her problem was going to be how to affect the rest of the world while she lived in this secluded temple.

Once the Avatar had been gone for about thirty minutes she worked her way down the temple stairs, and down the mountain a little. She found the three fire nation falcon messenger birds she had managed to acquire on her trip here after her prison break. She attached the six messages, two to each adorned with her royal seal and sent them off to the six people out there that she believed would still be loyal to her and could help her manipulate the world outside this secluded temple.

She sat their thinking about a lot of things. Now that she had succeeded in placing herself under the wing of the Avatar, she started to consider the rest of her plan. In all honesty there wasn't much. As much as she knew that she could get the Avatar to have strong feelings for her, in fact she was pretty sure she had done that in one night, she also knew that there was a very strong bond between him and that water tribe girl. She could see it every time they battled. The things about him that made it so easy to get him to trust and care about her in just one night were going to be the things that were going to make it very difficult to erode the bond he had with the peasant. She was pretty sure no matter how seductive she tried to be sex alone would be nowhere near a strong enough force to pull him away from her.

Azula had to make the other girl blow her relationship with the Avatar and for this to be the most beneficial to Azula using him to make her Firelord she would need to make this mistake with her brother Zuko. She really had not the faintest clue how she was going to go about doing that, and to start she had to make sure that the people she trusted out in the world would be willing to become her silent agents. Well she had a long time not only today, but for probably the next couple months to come up with something, and she had every confidence that she would eventually. The one part of phase II that she could control was her relationship with the young airbender.

In regards to this she was even more confident she would get what she wanted. She would keep him on a steady diet of dreams like he had last night, when they spent time together alone here she would be so grateful and charming and make sure that he was having the time of his life teaching and fighting and even playing with her. She would play along with everything he gave to her and as she learned more about him she would have an even easier time manipulating him. That was easy enough, like in their interaction this morning when she had pretended to be hurt by him not trusting her, how quickly he had moved to comfort her, they were already starting to have a physical connection, they had already hugged at least 5 times, the more and more this happened the more control she would hold over him, but for now she alone here.

For the rest of today she thought that she would take a bath, she had been in prison, and then on the run for 4 days so she knew that she was not looking or smelling her best. Whilst she knew that it would take much more than her physical attractiveness to break the will of the Avatar, he was just a fourteen year old boy, and her looking good could only help her cause. Not to mention as much as things like scenery didn't really affect her, this was a beautiful place and she saw a spring that would be just perfect for bathing. She walked into the Avatar's room and found some of the things that he must use for his bathing and she walked down to the spring and started to clean herself. After a while she just laid back and relaxed. She thought about how Aang, ughh she scolded herself, only refer to him as the Avatar when you're thinking about him, anyway how he said he was going to go shopping. She wondered if he would bring back anything she liked, though she doubted it he had said that he was going to the Earth Kingdom and rarely did their fashions suit her. It didn't really matter though he would be the only person seeing her in the near future and she would carefully gauge his reactions to each thing she wore so she could tell what he liked best.

As she soaked in the waters she thought how even though this Air Temple was like a prison it was so much nicer than the last one she had stayed in. She wondered what Avatar duties he was out there performing, pretending to look for her maybe. She laid back and closed her eyes relaxing in the cool but comfortable waters.

_Ty Lee was doing cartwheels through a series of flaming hoops as Mai sat next to Azula clapping very apathetically for her friends performance. Ty Lee finished and Azula stood up and clapped very loudly as Ty Lee ran over and hugged her and said "I was so glad you could be here for me Azula, I know how hard it is to get away from your husband.". Azula was puzzled husband she wasn't married, but when she looked down there was a ring on her finger that had some weird symbol that looked like an air nomad symbol morphing into a fire nation one. She looked over to Mai who smiled and said " What would we have said 7 years ago when we were in that tank train if you had told us that I would be Firelady and you would be the wife of the Avatar." she gave a small laugh " You probably would have blasted us with a wicked bolt of lightning." Ty Lee smiled and said "c'mon may as cute as you and ZuZu have always been I'm pretty sure that Azula and Aang are the cutest couple in the world." Azula was disgusted that she was being referred to as a member of the "cutest couple" in the world, and that she was married to The Avatar. "ZuZu is still firelord, and I'm not a fugitive?" she asked bewildered. Mai looked at her with a strange look and said "suffering from a quick bout of amnesia huh, c'mon you remember when you Aang brought you back into the world and begged for all the nations to pardon you because you were carrying the next generation of airbenders and you were the wife of the hero of the war." What the hell was going on here, she wasn't married to the Avatar and she certainly didn't have an airbending child, just then a small little bald 2 year old came scooting in on one of those airscooters Aang made and crashed right into her saying "Mommy, Mommy"_

Her eyes snapped open, as she felt the urge to vomit, talk about a nightmare. Even if things got serious with the Avatar which in the current form of her plan was very likely she would not be pardoned by the world as his wife. She needed to make the world bow down before her, let everyone who thought they had bested her know just how wrong they had been. She wanted to watch her blue flames bring the walls of ice around the north pole down. Sit once again triumphantly on the throne of Ba Sing Se. Stand over her brothers quaking body as she gave him a scar to match the one their father had given him for being fool enough to believe he could stand as Firelord when it was meant for her. She felt the water around her begin to heat up rapidly as all these angry thoughts and emotions flooded out of her.

She stood up and exited the water grabbing a towel she had grabbed from the Avatar's room to wrap around herself. She found some fresh fruit laying and since she was hungry ate it, she supposed she would have to get used to meals like this as she knew he was a vegetarian, oh well food was food she would make do. She was getting a little bored, god how she wanted him to return. All those thoughts had her riled up for a fight and she wanted to test herself, overpowering the Earth guards had been far too easy. She found some Air nomad style robes in the Avatar's room and threw them on, then went out to the courtyard she decided to shoot some lightning, she hadn't actually created a lightning bolt in more than a year, it would be refreshing to feel such raw power in her hands again. As she shot the first one into a boulder that happened to be lying there 50 or so yards away, she smiled as a feeling of true power that she had missed for a long time surged through her as she watched it explode. She continued to shoot a few more bolts around the temple. After practicing bending till nightfall she decided to take a nap under the stars near where she imagined he landed.

After resting for a few hours she heard a loud movement next to her and saw the giant Bison set down only a few yards away. The Avatar jumped down holding several garment bags, and said " I wasn't sure what you would like, so I got a lot of options, if you don't find anything I'll make a trip to the Fire Nation in the near future." Then she saw his eyes lock on her lying under the stars in the Air Nomad robes and she saw him smile as he said " Well you look great in my clothes too." a little blush hitting his cheeks. Azula grabbed the bags and said " Thanks I'll throw these in my room and check em out later, once I get back though be ready because I won't be holding anything back when we fight." she smiled flirtatiously as she turned and walked up to her room and quickly tossed her bags on the other bed in there.

Once she made her way back into the courtyard she saw that Appa had moved away and the Avatar had his staff out looking ready to battle. He said " I know you are a little bit out of practice so I'll take it easy on you, I'll only earthbend." as he looked at her with a confident smile. She laughed very confidently, "Well at least round one will be very quick then" as she quicky threw two flame blasts from her fists, that he quickly created a wall of earth to block, then he punched a few boulders at her from behind his wall, she easily kicked those aside and then did a roundhouse kick to shoot 2 more blue fireballs towards him. He ducked down under them and punched the ground to send a wave of earth towards her, but she jumped high in he air did a front flip and pointed both of her feet at him letting out a very strong lance of blue flame that he tried to make a quick wall in front of, but he didn't react quick enough to make it compact so her blast blew his wall to shreds and sent him flying back several feet in a wall of debris. As she landed she created a blue whip of flame in her hand and whipped it at him and it crashed down right between his legs as she said with a smile " I only missed because I wanted to."

The Avatar stood up and quickly blew the earth debris of himself with an air blast as he laughed and said " Wow you made quick work of me, I can usually last a while against Zuko with only my earthbending skills, I guess I forgot how dangerous you are." She smiled, soon she hoped that anyone who forgot that would learn an even more harsh lesson than the avatar. "This time I won't hold back, it should be fun." he said a wide grin on his face. He quickly created a little air scooter that he hopped on and came barreling towards her, two small flame blasts shooting at her, she laughed and said "I'd stick to your cute little air tricks against me." as she shot 2 blasts back at him that engulfed his and added there heat to her own attacks. He easily and quickly jumped off his scooter dodging her blasts and did a flip over her, as she looked up she forgot about the scooter as that crashed into her legs and tripped her over. As she came crashing down face first, she rolled over and quickly shot her leg up to fire a blast to where she thought he had landed, just as she fired it though she felt the earth she was laying on slam her in the back as it shot her into the sky, then she saw him swing his staff like a bat as a giant gust of air shot towards her. She put her hands behind her and let one super fast flameblast from each hand propel her even higher in the air flying over the gust of air. From her height she just started raining fireballs down on him as she started to descend back down towards the ground. He made a quick makeshift shell of earth over his head to block all the fireballs, as she fell she decided to land right on his shell and make this a close combat battle where all his airbending trickiness would be less effective. When her feet touched down on the shell she saw his head poke out and she did a sweep kick that connected right into the side of his face. He fell over onto his back and then she jumped at him a fire dagger in hand and landed her legs straddling his waist. He looked up into her eyes as she held the blue dagger to his throat, she could see a trace amount of fear in his eyes. She felt a tingle rush through her body as she felt his heat against her, straddling the avatar victorious was the greatest feeling she had had in more than a year.

Her battle scowl quickly turned into a smile as she extinguished the flame dagger and kissed his forehead and said " It's times like this I wonder how you ever beat my father." His face turned beat red in a mixture of shame and embarassment, as he said " Somehow Azula you could always get the best of me." She laughed and replied " Just be glad I'm on your side now." He smiled and said "I am, more than you may ever know." as he looked right in her eyes giving her this expression that she didn't quite understand, but she felt her heart beat a little faster as it seemed he was looking deep into her soul. They sat there looking into each others eyes for about a minute Azuala still straddling him when he finally said with a little smirk " I know you're glad you won Azula but you need to let me up eventually." She blushed a little as his words snapped her out of a mini daydream and she rolled off him saying " Sorry Aang." "No problem, at least you let me up" as he got up and started patting all the dirt off of himself he said . " I swear next time I'll be the one on top of you." "I'd like to see that happen." she said in a mildly suggestive voice, and she saw he just realized what he had said and the beat red color was back in his cheeks.

"Well Azula I uh, uh well I got my butt kicked in enough for one night, so I'll be heading off to bed now, this was a lot of fun, I think having you here will make me a much stronger fighter." he said as he started towards the temple. "Whatever I can do to pay you back for all you've done for me Aang, I can't say thank you enough." He replied "Please stop saying thank you Azula, I want you here, I know that despite our rocky start that you and I are gonna be the best of friends. You are so amazing to go through all you did, the changes you are making in yourself it makes me happy to be any part of it, I know you said you had doubts about the goodness in you, well I don't, I know the world is gonna be a much better place because you are part of it now." He smiled and gave her one of those looks in her eyes that only he could do, then turned away saying "Goodnight Azula."

She smiled as he walked away, this was going so well. The only part that she was going to have to fight was that little part somewhere in the back of her mind that wanted to be what he saw when he looked in her eyes. In coming up with this plan she found that while she had over estimated his ability to not fall for her, as she was pretty sure he already had, she had underestimated how much caring and loving like he did could affect her. She had never been around someone like him, and all that time rotting in a prison had probably made her more vulnerable. Well even if she did start to like Aang a little I guess that could only help, it would probably be easier to win him over if she actually cared rather than acted, plus when things got more serious maybe she would enjoy herself. When she got to her room, she once again closed her eyes with thoughts of Aang touching her. She felt so powerful straddling him, it was great, and she felt so warm and safe when he had hugged her. "Damn it Azula" she said to herself "you've been smiling like a schoolgirl for the past five minutes and in your thoughts you keep calling him Aang, I need to work on keeping my distance." As she let out an exasperated sigh she thought oh my Azula what have you gotten yourself into.


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6 An Almost Kiss

_Katara had sent him a message that something urgent was happening in the fire nation, and he had rushed there immediately on the back of Appa. She had said to meet her in Zuko's room, which he thought was weird, but whatever. As he ran into the fire palace he made a bee line for Zuko's room, when he burst through the door he was worried, but was relieved when he saw Katara and Zuko sitting on his bed laughing. "Hey guys what was so important, news about Azula." He said. " Katara turned to him and said " I just couldn't keep lying to you Aang, you need to know the truth." Confusion wrinkled his brow as he replied" lying about what?" Her face soured as she said " Look Aang you need to know I am so grateful for what you did for the world, but I can't keep being with you out of duty. You are just a little boy and I need a real man like firelord Zuko. We've been together for this past year we just didn't know how to tell you, you'll always be a great friend but the passion I share with Zuko in one minute could never be matched by a thousand lifetimes with you." Aang felt like he had gotten punched in the stomach as he just dropped like a sack of potatoes. He felt the heat of his tears as they just flowed down his face. Zuko stood up and started laughing at him," oh look Katara baby is crying, Aang how could you expect a beautiful woman like Katara to be with a crying little child like you." Katara got up and hugged Zuko and said "Take me now firelord I want him to see how a real man shows a woman he loves her." _

_A_ang's eyes opened, he felt terrible, that was the worst dream he had ever had. He could feel tears starting to form in his eyes, he just had to get up and take a walk to clear his mind. He walked out to the courtyard and looked up in the skies, it was a beautiful night the sky was clear and plenty of stars were shining bright. "What are you doing up so late" he heard in the familiar voice of his newly acquired roommate. "Hey Azula, I could ask you the same question." He replied. "I just had a bad dream and was looking in the sky to clear my thoughts." She had responded. He chuckled " that's funny I'm doing the same thing, want to talk about your bad dream?"

"Oh well I don't remember a lot of the details, but basically I went to see my father in his throne room, and he just talked to me about how he was disappointed in me and how I had become weak." She said, he thought he saw a little tear forming in her eye. He sat down next to her and put his arm around her shoulder and squeezed her as he said "The next time your dad calls you weak you can tell him how two nights ago you kicked the crap out of the guy who put him in that jail cell not only once but twice." She laughed a little bit as he felt her head come down to rest on his shoulder, and he squeezed her even a little more tightly. "Remember Azula the weak thing would have been to escape and go back to your old ways, to try and change yourself shows so much strength, you are the most impressive fighter I've ever seen but I'm starting to see that your real strength is in your heart."

She bunched up a little tighter next to him and said "Want to talk about what has you up so late." His mind locked up, while he thought he might want to talk about that dream about Katara he still just didn't feel quite right talking to Azula about Katara, but he figured that since they were living together and becoming so close he may as well. "Well Azula you know how Katara is my girlfriend" he felt her move a little and then maybe heard a weird sound from her as he said that but he wasn't sure. "So I just had a nightmare where I found out she was cheating on me." This time he felt her snuggle up into him and give him a strong hug as she said "Aang don't worry you are the Avatar any girl would be lucky to be with you."

When he heard Azula say that a girl would be lucky to be with him cause he was the Avatar, he let out a sigh and his face turned into a heavy frown, maybe Katara was really only with him because she felt obligated. He looked off to the side. Azula quickly said "Oh Aang I'm sorry I didn't mean it like that, C'mon hey Aang look at me!" she put her hand on his cheek and turned his head as her beautiful golden eyes met his, her hand felt so soft on his face. "Aang you know I didn't mean the only thing you have to offer is the fact that you are the Avatar, you are the most caring and sensitive person I have ever known. You are so strong, and funny and your heart is big enough to fit the entire world. Here I am someone who spent a year trying to kill you and now you're sitting here at 2 in the morning comforting me because I had a dream about how my father was disappointed because I didn't kill you." He saw a smile cross her face as she stared intently at him, "And you may never here me say this again but you are an incredibly good looking guy too." He saw her blush a little bit as she said this, she also gave him a sheepish smile, spirits she was so beautiful, he started to lean in towards her, there lips were a millimeter apart, Oh crap his brain screamed I can't do this.

He jerked his head back and stood up quickly. Azula quickly spoke up "Aang I'm so sorry, I didn't mean anything, I'll leave if you want me to." He saw tears starting to pour down her cheek. "Azula calm down, nothing happened, I'm not mad at you, I would never ask you to leave, this is your home now." He just couldn't help himself he pulled her into a tight hug and wiped the tears off her cheek. "It was my fault, you didn't do anything you actually made me feel a lot better about myself till I made you start to cry, so please stop crying." He heard her sniffle a little and then look up at him a little tear- stain still visible. "Ok Aang, I think that I'm gonna head back in all this drama has tuckered me out." She laughed and smiled again as she headed back towards the temple. He looked up into the sky then he heard her voice as he turned to see her standing by the entrance " I don't know if you want to hear this Aang, or if it even means anything to you, but I wanted it to happen too." With that she turned and went inside.

He sighed into the night sky this was so much more difficult then he imagined it would be. When he agreed to let her stay here he had so many concerns, but romantic moments under the stars were not one of them. He was going to have to do some serious meditating, get whatever was going on with him under control. He headed back to his room Azula was right all that drama did tucker you out. He crashed down and was out pretty much as soon as his head hit the pillow.

_Blue flames were bursting all around him as Azula had a maddened look in her eye. He kept dodging and blocking but he just felt her heat encroaching on him closer and closer. Finally a fire whip caught his leg and he tripped and fell backwards. His back hit the ground and before he knew it she was straddling him a blue fire dagger pressed at his throat yet again. "I don't care how hard you fight, or how far you run, but Fire Princess Azula always gets her man." The dagger disappeared and suddenly her mouth came down devastatingly fast on his ,he felt her legs grinding on him as she kissed him so passionately it seemed like she wanted to consume every inch of him. She let him go briefly and he said "Azula no this isn't right." She stared down at him with an intoxicating look of lust in her eyes as she laughed "Stop fighting it Avatar, I see in your eyes that you want this just as much as I want it." With that she tore his shirt wide open and started to run her sharp finger nails up his chest. He could feel the pain, but much more intense was the desire that was building up inside of him, though it hurt having her claw at him so passionately made him feel more alive then he had ever been. This time when her mouth met his he greedily accepted it and shifted his weight so that he rolled her over, he felt her legs squeeze like a vice around him and his hands grabbed her ass with such force as he started to grind….  
_He woke up heart racing head spinning. Oh crap he thought to himself this is getting bad.

**AN: Thanks for all the positive reviews, this is turning out to be very aangsty (laughs hard at own stupid pun) **


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7 Azula Alone

AN: Thanks for all the reviews, I'd love to hear what you like and I'm more than willing to take any criticism that you can offer.

Azula woke up, and rolled out of bed. As she stepped out of her room she noticed by the position of the sun that it was late morning. She doubted that The Avatar would be there, she figured that after the incident last night he would fly off to spend some time away from here, probably with his peasant girlfriend. As she was thinking this she noticed a note attached to the door of the temple out to the courtyard. She ripped it down and perused it.

_Hey Azula, good morning, I just wanted to let you know that_

_I'm going to be away from the temple for a few days, just have _

_Some Avatar meetings in Ba Sing Se, plus I'm gonna be stopping_

_Down in the South Pole to see Katara. I left some books out on_

_Meditating if you are interested in reading them, and I would _

_Practice your firebending too, because I plan on getting a rematch_

_When I come back and I don't plan on losing again. Have fun while_

_I'm gone._

_Aang_

Just as she expected he was going to try and avoid her for a few days, oh well not a problem, she knew that once he got inside her orbit again he would be drawn to her like a moth to a flame. Now she knew that she had some time here to work on her plan, but she was still unsure of what the rest of that plan was. Azula walked out into the courtyard and looked up at the sun, it was a warm day and she loved the heat of the sun on her skin. She let out a sigh and walked down the stairs to where she hoped that some of her messenger hawks would have returned.

As Azula reached the spot on the mountain where she would expect them to be, she found only one had returned. With it was two notes from two Dai Li agents who she believed would still follow her orders. As she quickly scanned their replies she was pleased to see that they seemed to still be enthralled by her. Of course they were, they had seen her at the height of her power, a small smile hit her lips as she remembered sitting on the throne of Ba Sing Se. How much she missed those days when she was a conquering princess, who had defeated the most powerful man in the world. She remembered watching the Avatar fall from the sky the glow disappearing from his tattoos.

Stop it Azula, she mentally scolded herself, remembering what it was like when she was on top of the world would do her no good now. Only weak people reminisced about their glory days, she would be on top of the world again someone as great as her was meant to lead, not hideaway running from an inferior enemy who had stolen your rightful place on the throne. She told the hawk it could go off and find food as she walked back up towards the temple. Once she reached the courtyard she decided to spend some time working on her firebending and lightningbending.

After she had practiced her bending for a few hours and then eaten she found the books that the Avatar had left out for her. Meditating was a subject that she had never studied much, but perhaps it could help her formulate the rest of her plan. She spent a few hours reading about how to clear her mind and let go of earthly attachments, and blah blah, god this stuff was useless. No wonder the Fire Nation had so easily wiped out the Air Nomads if they spent their time focusing on such pointless endeavors. The rest of the day went on without much of anything happening. Azula went to bed thinking to herself how much she was looking forward to another day of boredom here.

_She sat alone looking at the throne of the Fire Nation that she had known one day would be hers. Suddenly the fires around it shot way up in the air, as they came back down she saw her grandfather Azulon sitting there with a very disappointed look on his face. "Azula you are named for me, I have seen how great of a firebender you are, how can you let your weak brother sit here. I am not surprised that your father was beaten, I always thought Iroh was stronger, but you, you were the member of the royal family who I believed could be as great as Firelord Sozin himself, that is the only reason I made your father Firelord." He said looking down on her. "Grandfather, I know that I failed but I swear I will make it better, I know that the throne you sit on is the only place that will ever be my home, and I will die before I lay down and let Zuko sit there disgracing our family with his weak and peaceful ways." Azula said, she could feel the heat and anger burning through her body. The flames around the throne began to burn blue and rise high again, this time when they came down she saw herself sitting there. "Look hard at me Azula, this is where we need to be, do whatever you need to, do not let anything or anyone stand in our way. Since birth we have known that we were brought into this world to be the greatest leader the Fire Nation or the world had ever known, things have gone badly but it is all just a challenge to prove your worth." The Azula on the throne stepped through the fire as she finished saying this and put her hand on the real Azula's face. Azula felt her face start to burn, "If you fail me this is just a small preview of what awaits you." The other Azula handed her a mirror as she said this and as Azula looked in it and she saw her face, but with a scar that matched her brothers._

Azula's eyes opened. The morning had come and she had yet another day of doing nothing here all alone in The Southern Air Temple. She was actually glad that she had that dream, it reminded her of the great purpose she had and how she just could not fail. This time when she went down the mountain she saw the other hawks had returned, she saw all four people said they were still loyal to her. One was a royal guard from inside the palace that would be very important when she needed to manipulate her brother. The most interesting response was from the youngest general in the Fire Nation army General Zato. Azula was pretty sure that General Zato had a giant crush on her for years and had always hoped that by being a successful general he may one day win her hand in marriage. Anyway Zato said that he was starting a rebellion with the intention of ousting her brother and making her Firelady.

She laughed, she was sure Zato would fail, he had never been too impressive plus he would be up against her brother, and more importantly the Avatar and his gang of powerful friends. His rebellion though would likely be enough to get the Avatar and the peasant girl and Zuko all in the Fire Nation all at the same time, now all she had to do was figure out a way to get her brother and the water tribe girl to have some sort of sexual tryst. She was confident that somehow she could make this happen. She immediately sent a note back to Zato saying she appreciated his support and to continue with his plans and if he succeeded she would celebrate him as the hero he would have proven himself to be. She also ordered him to destroy all of the communications from her and that if he were to fail to not mention they had talked because she was formulating her own plan to rise to power again. She promised that even if he were to fail that when she rose to power again she would pardon him.

His message was void of many details about his plans for the rebellion but she was fine with that, as she burned the messages she had received in her hands. She was sure that he would fail and needed to not be bothered with exactly how that failure was going to go down. She was just glad that his pathetic plan had given her renewed hope that her plan would be successful.

The royal guard who still swore loyalty to her would be key in staging the tryst between Zuko and the water tribe girl so she dispatched a hawk to him with a message describing what she would eventually need from him in a simple code that she had devised and sent the key in the initial message to him. She had known that the messages to the royal palace would be by far the most likely to be intercepted so she had used a simple code to hide her plans from anyone else who intercepted future messages. The code was simple to read, but only if you had the key sent in the first message, otherwise it was virtually impossible to break. Azula knew that there was an herb that was rare but when drank could make you highly vulnerable to suggestion and hypnosis. Using this she believed she would be able to stage the scenario she needed to break the Avatar's heart, then she would be there to pick up the pieces and reform them into a much more jagged and angry form. She would then lead him down a dark path and they would take their vengeance on her brother Zuko together. She sent the last hawk out with a message to her other contact in the Fire Nation capitol with orders to acquire these herbs and get them to the royal guard.

The rest of this day was much better than the previous day. She now had formed a plan and was pretty confident that it would work. She did wish that she could have a more direct role, but that was impossible so she had to have faith in her agents. Even the greatest leader needed competent people underneath them to be successful, she told herself. She was in the courtyard firing blue flames and lightning bolts into the night sky. The avatar had said that he wanted a rematch and she wanted to make sure that there would be no way he could win. Standing victorious over the most powerful force (Other than herself of course) in the world gave her a massive rush everytime. Though she had never really lost confidence in herself all those dank days in prison the reassurance that she was correct about how truly regal and powerful she was didn't hurt.

Three more days went on much like this one, her wandering around, she believed she had investigated every inch of the Temple except the one room that had a door she was pretty sure you need Airbending to open. She had to remember to get the Avatar to show her what was inside of this room sometime. Also during these days she honed her fighting skills, whilst she had emerged victorious in the previous sparring sessions with the Avatar, she was pretty sure that she was still rusty, and these days convinced her of this. Azula was feeling much more physically and mentally stronger than she had the first few days out of the prison.

She was glad to have this separation from the Avatar, it had let her get some perspective on the situation. She thought about how much of a paradox the young airbender was. He yielded so much power, and yet she had bended and manipulated him to her will so easily. He had battled against her for a long time and yet he seemed to truly believe that she had become the weak and pathetic crying remorseful girl she had portrayed these last few days. A truly great warrior and leader could not only fight but also understand their enemy, he clearly did not understand her if he believed all of this so easily. Oh well as if all the times she had defeated him was not enough to convince her that she was superior to him then their interpersonal reactions sure had. Looking back on it she now knew her father must not have been as great as he seemed in her eye's to fall to such a boy with such obvious flaws. It was her destiny to be the Firelord who finally brought the rest of the world to its knees and that airbending boy was going to be her weapon. The Avatar usually ruled as an agent of peace but her avatar would be an Agent of Azula. Now she just wished that he would come back because as nice as gaining perspective was she was pretty bored and burning him into the ground with her blue flames and eroding whatever confidence he had restored in his self control towards her was a lot more fun than sitting here shooting lightning bolts into the night sky.


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter 8 A Lost Bet

It had been six days since Aang had been to The Southern Air Temple, he remembered how after that dream he had about Azula he just needed to clear out and get some space, it was convenient that he really had to go to a 2 day conference in Ba Sing Se about the rebuilding of relations between The Fire Nation and Earth Kingdom. While in Ba Sing Se he got to see Toph for the first time in a while and it was fun, she had moved back in with her parents, it made him happy that she had repaired her relationship with them. He also spent each night after the conference in Iroh's tea shop where the whole gang had gathered to catch up and have fun like they did when they traveled the world together.

One night during these parties he had pulled Iroh aside to talk about what he thought about Azula being loose. He was sad that Iroh seemed seriously concerned that Azula had something dark and devious cooking to get back at all of them. He told Aang that Azula was just as different from Zuko as he was different from Ozai, and that he was scared that in the near future that someone we all cared about would be seriously hurt or worse by Azula's wrath. Aang really wanted to shout at Iroh and tell him how wrong he was about Azula, but then he would have a lot of explaining to do about why he would defend the fire princess. That had left him in a sour mood for the rest of the night, but it had been the last night in Ba Sing Se and he was soon cheered up by spending 3 days with Katara at the South Pole.

Now as he was almost back at the Southern Air Temple he wondered what Azula had been up to. He felt kind of bad having left her there for six days alone. He laughed to himself I'm sure Iroh thinks she was here plotting some sort of maniacal scheme, it would be pretty hard to do much of anything by yourself alone at an abandoned temple.

As Appa touched down in the main courtyard of the temple he saw Azula was sitting there appearing to be meditating. He grabbed the couple Fire Nation outfits he had bought for her off the back of Appa and said "Hey Azula, I could tell you didn't really like the Earth Kingdom stuff I got for you the other day so I stopped and got you some stuff that looked like what you would wear when you were chasing me." She stood up and turned around and said in an angry voice "How dare you disturb me while I am meditating!" Aang was stunned at how she could be so mad and he frowned rather large, but then he saw Azula laugh and smile as she said "Come on Aang you are so easy to trick. I missed you though, it can get really boring being by yourself for almost a week." "Yea sorry bout that, even in peace the Fire Nation and Earth Kingdom fight all the time and everyone is still really concerned about you." He replied. "Well you know better than anyone Aang when I want to be bad no one in the world is better at it, but at least you need not worry since you know I'm on your side now." "Yea I just wish the rest of the world could know." Aang said. Her response was "I'm not ready yet Aang please give me more time." "I know Azula it's just I had a talk with your uncle about you and he seemed to think that you could never be better, and I wish that the rest of my friends could know you and become friends with you like I have." She looked at him straight in the eyes with a gentle smile, he thought to himself how truly unique and special her golden eyes were, they were like two tiny suns trapped in a different kind of heavenly body, oh my gosh did I just think that! He was watching her lips move but he had not registered anything she had said.

"I'm sorry Azula could you repeat that, I spaced out for a minute." Aang said a slight blush on his cheeks. "Oh I was just saying how it would all happen one day where I could become a part of your friends and just not to worry about my uncle he always loved Zuko more than me just like my mother did." She said looking slightly saddened by what she had just said. Aang started towards the temple and said "Well I'm tired Azula, I'm gonna head to bed, but tomorrow I plan on showing you the real power of an Avatar, so be ready to bring your best firebending cause I'm sick of losing to you." She smiled and said. "I guess we'll see what tomorrow brings." He headed into the temple and found his room and plopped down in his bed. His mind was racing, even those six days apart had not really solved the problem he had when he left. Oh well I hope I can at least beat her in our sparring session tomorrow was his last thought as he drifted off to sleep.

_"Aang I don't want to hurt your feelings, but when Zuko and Katara beat me I saw them kiss and embrace in a way that was more than friendly." Azula told him. "You are lying Azula, Zuko told me that you always lie." Aang said tears forming in his eyes. Just then Zuko and Katara came into view behind Azula and he saw them hand in hand. Zuko said "This time she isn't lying Aang, we feel really bad and Katara and I don't know how to tell you but we've been together since the end of the war." Aang looked at Katara but she wouldn't look at him, then he turned back to look at Azula and she had tears in her eyes as she eeked out "I trusted you Aang but I guess you will never trust me, I need to leave." She turned and ran tears still pouring down from her eyes. Aang chased after her screaming "Azula wait please, if I can't have Katara I want you instead." With that Azula turned the tears gone and a look of pure anger replaced it she said in a voice that reminded him of when she was trying to kill him. "Is that all I am to you Avatar, a toy, a replacement, a consolation prize. Here I stand the most powerful and beautiful princess in the world and you only want me cause you can't have a water tribe peasant girl, I will not belittle myself for you anymore." As she finished her speech she started to make lightning and as Aang tried to get ready to redirect it he couldn't move his limbs, he saw her smiling as the bolt was right about to hit him…._

_A_ang woke up, great he thought to himself, back at the temple, back to these crazy dreams. In the six days he was gone from here he really had only had maybe one dream of this weird caliber about Azula, and that had been right after his talk with Iroh so that made some sense. He looked out the window and saw dawn was approaching so he figured he would just meditate for the last few hours try to clear his head of all this Azula craziness.

It was about ten in the morning when he finally came out of his meditation and headed out to the courtyard and he was not surprised to see Azula there, she had laid out breakfast for him and she said as he came out "I want you to have a full meal so there is no excuse when I have another victory over the Avatar under my belt." He sat down and talked with Azula about some of the politics of the world he had been discussing at all these meetings. He was amazed at how knowledgeable she was about everything and the intelligence and wit she carried on there conversation. He wished he could have her as his advisor/translator at all these meetings. He was starting to understand why she was so confident all the time, and what being regal truly was.

After they had talked for about an hour Azula stood up abruptly and said "Well Aang as fascinating as all this has been I have been itching to throw some fire at a real target, so if you're ready let's give you your chance at a rematch, but if I win I want you to take me to the beach on the southern tip of the Fire Nation tomorrow, I would love to get away from here for a day." "It's a deal Azula, but even if I win I'll take you, you deserve a day away no matter what." He said with a smile. She walked out into the courtyard and said "Thank you Aang that is very sweet of you but unnecessary, for I have no doubt I will be the victor yet again." Turning with one of the smirks that he had seen so many times when she was his enemy. Standing there she was framed so perfectly by the sun, he didn't understand how a woman could be so menacing and beautiful all at the same time.

He stood up and walked into the courtyard creating a sphere of air around him. This battle between them was very different than the previous two had been. Aang was giving everything he had, minus the avatar state and Azula would blast her blue rockets out of the way everytime. They had been blasting and dodging at each other for well over thirty minutes when Aang saw Azula preparing to shoot lightning at him for the first time, haha he thought to himself I bet she doesn't know I can redirect it so I'll blast it right back at her and that should surprise her enough that I can get in to subdue her. As he prepped his form for redirecting the lightning he saw it shooting straight towards, wait what, it wasn't aimed at him it was aimed at the mountain right above him as it crashed into the mountain above him he felt the rocks starting to fall down towards him so he quickly created a shelf to block the falling rocks above him, but in that second as he was distracted by the rocks he felt a sharp pain as Azula had rocket blasted a fist right into his gut as he fell over backwards as her force pushed him over and once again he found her straddling him with a blue flame dagger pressed at his throat. She had another one of those smugly beautiful smiles on her face and he saw the blue flames dancing in her golden eyes as she said "I told you I would earn that trip to the beach avatar." He smiled despite being beaten, "Hey Azula you broke the rules, no calling me Avatar." She extinguished the dagger and got up saying, "You are right Aang I'm sorry, but I still plan on claiming my prize." "Don't worry tomorrow we'll go, right now I have to go and clean myself off after losing to you once again, I just don't understand how you can always beat me." He said rising and walking off towards his room.

He had cleaned himself and meditated for a while he went up to the courtyard to see Azula practicing her firebending. He just sat there and watched her, she was amazing Aang always thought that Toph and Katara were the two best benders he had ever seen but he knew that like they were to Earth and Water Azula was to fire. Really it was true, Toph had invented metalbending, and as horrible as it was Katara could bloodbend, Azula was just as special as she was the only firebender who made the extreme heat of blue flames. He smiled thinking about taking her to the beach, it would be weird to see Azula in a recreational setting, she always seemed so determined and serious, it would be interesting. He got up and said "Hey Azula I'll make us dinner." "Sounds good Aang" was her quick reply.

He made a nice vegatarian air nomad style meal and Azula and he sat under the stars eating and talking away. She seemed very interested about hearing his tales of growing up as an Air Nomad and his life before the iceberg. She shared some tales of growing up in the royal palace and the adventures she had in school with Mai and Ty Lee, he noticed she seemed sad talking about them, he wasn't really sure what had happened between them, but he could tell she missed her friends. After dinner the two of them laid out under the beautiful sky, their conversations continuing. Aang thought to himself how glad he actually was to share the beauty of this temple with someone else. He couldn't believe how much he had come to like Azula, all that time as his enemy he now understood why she was so fierce. He always knew about her skills as a fighter but the rest of her was just as amazing as her blue firebending. They kept talking till around midnight and Azula excused herself and said how she was looking forward to tomorrow. Aang headed towards his bedroom, he was looking forward to tomorrow too, just relaxing and talking too Azula was just as fascinating and as exhilarating as fighting her, and he couldn't wait to see her in a more relaxed environment. He hit his bed and snuggled up into his pillow. With the way he had been talking to and thinking about Azula he tried to mentally prepare himself for the dream that was sure to come. "Oh well it's just a dream" he said into the night air.

_Azula was in a gold bikini that perfectly matched her eyes as she took his hand and led him off Appa and towards the ocean. He let her drag him into the shallow part as she said with a cute smile "Come on Avatar show me some impressive waterbending moves." He needed to impress her so he made a surfboard of ice and rode out way deep and summoned up a massive wave. He rode it towards the beach and did a series of flips landing perfectly each time. He looked towards the shore and saw Azula lying out there, the sun glistening off her perfect skin, he hoped that she was watching him and was pleased when he saw her eyes meet him, a beautiful smile hitting her lips as she teased "Is that all the great and mighty Avatar has to offer the Fire Princess." He quickly flipped through the air and landed right next to her and shifted his feet to earthbend the sand underneath her which shot her up directly into his arms. He caught her and dipped her a little as her hair splayed across her face. He held her strongly in one arm as his other hand gently moved the hair out of her face, he looked deep into those golden orbs and said "Azula there are so many things I want to show you, and there is a whole different level of my powers that I can't wait to explore with you." As he finished saying that his lips softly caressed hers, but then when he heard her moan and open her mouth submissively he couldn't be gentle anymore as his tongue invaded her mouth with the aggression of a starving predator. He felt the two of them slowly descending back down to the earth, as she hit the ground she parted her legs so that he ended up right between them, she hungrily pulled him down on her there lips and tongue still locked, once they finally parted he felt her nails running up and down his back, pain had never felt so good, then he felt her teeth bite his earlobe, and then her hot breath in his ear saying "I need it now Aang, I need you, we are one and the same, don't fight it anymore make me your princess forever. He felt her hands move from his back to his swimming trunks as she pulled them down and then felt her feet pulling them the rest of the way down his legs as her hands started to undo her bikini…._

Once again Aang woke up panting and sweating, sheets a mess all around him. He thought to himself spirits I hope that bikini isn't real.


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter 9 A Day At The Beach

Azula'e eyes opened as the sun was shining bright into her face. She thought it must be late morning, she had apparently slept very soundly after her trip to the Avatar's room to manipulate his dreams once again. She supposed she must have been tired after their hard fought battle, the Avatar was much more determined yesterday and he had almost bested her on several occasions. She was still pleased with herself, when it came down to it she had stood victorious over the avatar.

She rolled out of bed and made her way out into the courtyard. Today would be different, she was going to be away from this temple for the first time in a while, and she and the avatar would be out at the beach "having fun". She walked out into the courtyard and saw the avatar playing with his bison. "Hello sleepyhead, I thought maybe you were going to sleep through the whole day." He said with a smile. "Don't worry Aang I'm just going to grab a bite to eat and change and then we can be off." She replied. She quickly ate some fruit and bread and then went to her room to change.

It took her about thirty minutes till she was ready and she came out to see the avatar standing in front of the bison shirtless and in a pair of trunks, he said "I grabbed a bunch of towels and threw them in Appa's saddle." She approached the bison a little apprehensively, the avatar laughed, "Don't worry Azula he knows you're not the enemy anymore, he won't bite, just take my hand and we'll hop into the saddle." He reached his hand out. Azula took it and with that they jumped on the back of the great beast. The Avatar scooted down and said "Yip, Yip" and with that the bison rose into the sky. Sitting in the saddle watching the clouds underneath them gave Azula a bit of a rush, she had flown in an airship and a war balloon, but riding the bison was a different experience entirely. She heard the Avatar say, "Fun isn't it?" with a huge grin plastered on his face. "It certainly is interesting" she replied.

"I was thinking, won't people recognize you Azula?" he asked her. "I don't think so, the last time I was at the beach no one knew I was the princess, plus I'll be out with the avatar, I doubt anyone would be expecting Fire Princess Azula the most wanted criminal in the world to be swimming with The Avatar." She answered. "I guess you are right." He said. "You worry too much, I'm the wanted one and you are the hero of the world and you are the one who is concerned, if I'm not worried you shouldn't be." Azula said smiling back at him.

They flew for about another two hours till they reached the little beach resort located at the southern tip of the fire nation named Obsidian beach, for the pitch black sand that was unusual. She noticed that the beach wasn't crowded, she knew that it was one of the least popular beaches in the Fire Nation. Still seeing the bison land there did draw a lot of attention and many people rushed over to greet them. She doubted anyone would recognize her, but just in case she quietly slipped off the back of Appa while the avatar said hello and shook hands with all the people who came over to greet him. Azula walked several yards away and put a blanket down on the sand. She took off her outer clothes and was left in her bathing suit, which was slightly less revealing then she would have liked to have the maximum teasing potential towards the Avatar. It didn't really matter anyway she knew that it would take more than her physical charms to break his will.

She was lying on the blanket for about twenty minutes while the Avatar finished dealing with all his fans. Finally he walked over and said "Sorry bout that I can't go anywhere with out drawing a little crowd." She heard in the background people saying things of the nature of "OOOH look the avatar has a girlfriend." She noticed he blushed a little bit so he must have heard some of these comments too. "Come on Azu… I mean Azana, let's go and hit the water, I bet I can swim a lot farther and faster than you." He teased towards her. She smiled back "Well of course you can you are a waterbending master and I am just a simple little girl named Azana." She winked at him mocking the stupid name he had made up.

He grabbed her hand and yanked her up and said with a goofy grin "Come on you wanted to come here with me, so lets get in the water and have fun." She let him drag her towards the water, once they hit it, she stuck her foot out and tripped him, he toppled over and fell face first into the water. He rolled over and said "Hey not fair." Azula laughed at him and said "That's what you get for pulling me over here." He just giggled and then made a motion with his arms after about a second she felt a giant ball of water drop right on her head. He started laughing even harder, and she felt a scowl form on her face. Through his chuckling he said, "Now you look like you did when we were battling all the time, far too serious for a day at the beach."

She smiled at him and said "You are right Aang, I'll race you if you promise not to use any bending to cheat." "It's a deal, I'll make a mound of earth out in the water, swim to it then swim back first back out of the water wins." She jumped in the water and started swimming towards the mound of earth he had made. She heard him say behind her "Oh no we started," Azula was swimming as hard as she could and touched the mound then turned back and made it back to the beach in what she felt was a very fast time. She stepped out of the water with a confident smile on her face, but saw him sitting there with a smirk as he said, "Took you long enough slowpoke I've been here for quite a while I was starting to worry about you." "I had to finally let you win at something, Aang I felt so bad always beating you." She said back with a laugh.

They went through the next several hours splashing and swimming, the avatar seemed to be having a blast. She realized to that it was not so bad to be out here, as frivolous as it was it was at least a break from the routine her life at the temple had become. Plus the Avatar seemed to be having a lot of fun trying to show off for her and she was certain that she saw him checking her out several times throughout the day. Night was approaching and most of the people were leaving the beach, some people came over to say goodbye to the Avatar. She thought it was pretty funny when an older couple came over and said how cute she and Aang were, that they were perfect for each other, the Avatar blushed profusely and mumbled about how he had a different girlfriend. They said it was a shame because she couldn't be as pretty as I was and the Avatar deserved only the best.

Once the moon was fully up in the sky the avatar said we should get going. She was wrapped in a towel as she climbed on the back of the bison. She felt that her day at the beach had been a success, she and the avatar had had a fun and relaxing day bringing their friendship even closer. Azula was convinced that once she managed to break up the avatar with his girlfriend that he would soon fall under her spell. Now she just needed that rebellion general Zato had mentioned to start. She closed her eyes and let herself drift off to sleep.

She was gently nudged awake by the Avatar after they landed at the temple. "Hey Azula we are home." She heard him say as her eyes opened. She jumped down off of the bison and said to the Avatar "Thanks Aang this was fun today." She said. He smiled at her and said "It was fun to see a more relaxed side of you Azula." "Don't get used to it I want to have some more fighting practice tomorrow and I plan on beating you much quicker than last time." She replied. "Oh Azula I'm sorry but I've got to leave for a couple days again tomorrow, it's Toph's birthday and there is a big party for her. " he said with a small frown. "Oh don't worry about it Aang I know I'm not your only friend, go have fun." She said looking a little sad. "Someday soon Azula I won't be your only friend, I'm gonna start trying to convince everyone subtly that maybe you've changed, it will be so much fun when you can join me on these trips." The avatar said. "Oh well goodnight Aang, I hope you have fun, but once you get back I'm going to hand you yet another crushing defeat." Azula said going towards the temple door.

She changed out of her bathing suit and got in a silk nightgown that he had bought her that she actually liked, it was red like she always wore at her days in the palace. She got into bed and thought about what she would do tomorrow, as much as she hated to admit it she would miss the avatar. The days here all by herself could be quite tedious and boring, she couldn't wait till she could be back in the Fire Nation on her throne. Sometimes that seemed like it was so far away, but she knew that it was her destiny and she just needed to be patient and it would all come to her in time. Now she would try to catch a few hours of sleep and try to make sure to get in the middle of the night to give the avatar another racy dream so his mind would be clouded by thoughts of her when he was with his girlfriend and the rest of his gang.


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter 10 Toph's Birthday

_Aang was standing outside of Katara's igloo hand in hand with Azula. She looked over at him and said "Before you go inside there are a few things you need to see first." He blinked and then suddenly he was inside Iroh's tea shop the Jasmine Dragon and saw Katara and Zuko siting across from each other at a table. Aang could not hear anything they were saying but he could see them laughing and smiling, then he saw Zuko reach over and take Katara's hand and he noticed a blush creep across her face as she stared into his eyes. He took a step forward but then suddenly found himself sitting next to Sokka in the Ember Island Playhouse. He looked up and he could see the little girl who was playing him opposite the actual Katara and the little girl said "Oh Katara, I need you to know that I saved the world for you so we could be together." As the stage avatar finished saying this the real Zuko swung onto stage and took Katara in an embrace and kissed her deeply then as they separated looked over at the little girl and said "Aang how could a woman like Katara ever see anything in you when she has her very own prince who would do anything for her." Then Zuko smiled smugly as Sokka turned to Aang out in the crowd and said "It's so funny, the avatar thought my sister would have anything to do with him, hahahaha, isn't it just hysterical Aang." Aang got up to rush out of the the playhouse but then rushed into Zuko's room at the Fire Palace to see a crying Mai sitting on Zuko's bed. She turned to Aang and said "How could they do this too us Aang, I loved Zuko with all my heart and he just tossed me aside for that water tribe girl." Aang walked up to Mai and said "Come on Mai you must be mistaken, there is nothing going on between Zuko and __Katara." She laughed and said "I thought Toph was the blind one, if there is nothing between them then why did he leave me here crying and hop on a zeppelin to the South Pole." As Aang was about to say something he felt a hand in his and looked over to see Azula standing with him once again in front of Katara's igloo. She looked over with a sadness in her golden eyes as she spoke"I know that you need to see for yourself, just know Aang that she isn't the girl who really loves you. She may have been your first love, but your forever love is someone else I'm sure of it." She squeezed his hand and gave him the most beautiful smile as she turned and walked away disappearing in the distance. Aang took a tentative step towards the igloo terrified of what he was going to find in there. As he parted the animal skin that hung in the doorway he heard Katara in an excited voice screaming "Oh Yes Zuko I want you so much, make me a woman, make me your woman." _

_A_ang's eyes opened to see the first rays of dawn cracking into his room. He felt tears beginning to sting in his eyes. Why are you crying, it was just a dream, there is nothing going on between Zuko and Katara he tried to reassure himself. Then he heard Mai's voice in his head "I thought Toph was the blind one" Katara loves me and Zuko is my friend they would never do that to me he kept repeating to himself in his head. He changed and stopped by Azula's room and poked his head in. She was sleeping peacefully, he envied her not being troubled by such a complex swirl of crazy dreams. He then attached the quick note he had prepared for her to the door and turned out to exit the temple and find Appa.

He had a giant smile on his face as he thought about how fun the next two days were going to be, the whole gang was going to be in Ba Sing Se to celebrate Toph's fourteenth birthday and he couldn't wait to see her expression when he gave her the awesome gift he had secured for her a piece of another meteorite. He spent the rest of the flight admiring the beauty of the world as it passed underneath him and had very successfully managed to block out the troubling thoughts his dreams had been flooding his mind with recently.

Appa touched down in the backyard of the house that he had in Ba Sing Se and Aang jumped down off his back as Appa headed towards his giant mound of hay to enjoy his lunch. Aang walked in the backdoor and saw Sokka and Suki sitting down at the table, a giant slab of some sort of meat sitting in front of them. Sokka looked up and smiled and said "Hey Aang." but Suki ran up and gave Aang a giant hug as they hadn't seen each other in several months. Sokka said in an accusatory voice "You never give me that big of a hug when I come home Suki." She replied quickly "Well your just not as cute and huggable as Aang here." and punctuated it by giving Aang a kiss on the cheek. Sokka then stood up seemingly angry and stormed over to Aang, but then smiled and held out his arm which Aang happily took in the traditional water tribe handshake, but that quickly turned into a hug. "I missed you guys, especially you Suki." Aang said giving her a little wink. Sokka laughed "Ha Ha Aang very funny."

"So Sokka where is everybody else, did Toph get here yet?" Aang asked. Sokka replied "Nah she's supposed to be getting here around dusk, busy day at the metal bending academy." Aang smiled thinking about how awesome and powerful Toph was and said "Oh yeah I've been meaning to check into that school to learn a few things from my old master." Suki said "Sit down Aang we were about to have lunch, I'll go make you a quick salad." Aang said "Thanks a lot Suki." as he took a seat next to Sokka. He looked over at Sokka who had already begun stuffing his face with meat and asked "Did Katara come with you?" Sokka replied mouth full of meat "Ohh Yea she headed down to the Jasmine Dragon for breakfast with Zuko about two hours ago. Like a bolt of lightning the image of Katara and Zuko in the tea shop from his dream shot into his head. Suddenly all the insecure and jealous thoughts Aang had so successfully blocked out flooded back into his brain like a typhoon. "Didn't Mai come with Zuko?" he asked, Sokka shrugged and said "Zuko said they had some sort of a fight yesterday, those two fight all the time you know it."

Panic was spreading through Aang's brain as Mai's voice once again echoed "I thought Toph was the blind one." This must all be a coincidence he repeated in his head, I don't have prophetic dreams I just have crazy dreams about pantslessness and math tests. Suki came out and put a bowl of salad in front of him and said "Enjoy." He picked at his salad as his mind was still racing with his fears and doubts. Sokka and Suki were talking about something but he was barely paying attention, and then he saw the front door open and Zuko and Katara walked through. Katara got a big smile on her face when she saw Aang sitting there and she ran over and gave him a huge hug and a soft little kiss on the lips. He thought about how that kiss felt nothing like what he imagined the ones she had been giving Zuko in his dreams would feel like, or the kisses he had been receiving from Azula in those other troubling dreams he had been having.

He smiled at her, as he thought to himself she's glad to see you, dreams are just dreams, let it go, even though he was pretty sure Zuko was giving him some sort of a dirty look. She sat down next to him and they all started to talk, catching up on what had been happening in the process of rebuilding not only the world but all their lives. Then after lunch they all went into the backyard and watched a thrilling sword fight between Zuko and Sokka that Sokka managed to win barely. He said after the fight "If I can't win a non-bending sword fight what good am I anyway." To which Suki joked "I ask myself that question everyday." Then Aang and Katara went for a quick fly up on Appa, and Momo came along attached to Aang's head as he had been living with Katara for the past few months so he missed Aang. They went to the Zoo that Aang had crafted when they were staying during the war and he showed her all the animals and described how he built it. After that they headed back to his house and walked in while everyone was getting ready to go to Toph's party.

Aang was in his room changing when he heard a knock on his door he quickly said "Come In." he was mildly surprised when it was Zuko who stepped in his room and closed the door behind him. Zuko looked at him and said "Hey Aang can we talk about something." Aang swallowed hard thoughts racing through his head like Oh my god he's gonna tell me he and Katara are in love, as he meekly said "Sure Zuko." Zuko seemed a bit nervous and said "I heard a strange and troubling rumor about you and I just had to make sure that it is as ridiculous as it sounds." Aang's head started spinning thinking to himself what could he be talking about. Zuko said "Well I know how silly this sounds but I heard that you and Azula were out on a date at Obsidian Beach yesterday." Aang looked stunned and thought oh that. Zuko laughed nervously and said "Crazy right?" Aang just smiled and said "Uhh Uhhh yea that is weird... Me and Azula on a date that is just tooooooo crazy." "Were you even at the beach yesterday?" Zuko asked him. A whole bunch of lies raced through his head and he tried "Yea I was, I was with a girl too, but it wasn't a date you know just two friends at the beach." Zuko looked skeptical and asked "It wasn't Azula right?" Aang laughed very very loudly as he said "Azula, haha no way that is insane, how could Azula and I spend a day on the beach having fun, we're mortal enemies." "Well why would people say it was her?" Zuko kept pressing. "I don't know Zuko why crazy liars say the things they say, there is no way in the world I would be on a date with Azula." Aang's voice had risen to a rare angry level.

Sokka knocked on the door but then quickly poked his head in without waiting for a response. He said "Who's dating Azula? If she doesn't kill the guy he's one lucky fella, Zuko don't tell Suki I ever said this but your sister for a crazy bitch was smoking hot." Aang blushed a little as he couldn't help but agree with Sokka about the last part at least, and Zuko made a disgusted face and said to Sokka "Don't worry Sokka I will try to erase that thought from my mind as soon as possible." Sokka asked "So anyway who was dating her?" Aang turned to Sokka and said "Zuko thinks I am." Sokka started laughing hysterically and screamed to the whole house "Zuko has lost it guys, he thinks Aang is dating Azula. Hey sis you hear that sounds like you've got some competition for the Avatar's heart, he's been seeing Azula on the side, haha."

This had quickly turned uncomfortable for Aang as much of a joke as this was to Sokka it was in a way partially true. Katara stormed in the room and with a mock horrified look said "Oh my Aang, do I mean nothing to you how could you with Azula nonetheless." Aang screamed "This is not funny guys cut it out." Sokka turned and said "Jeez Aang lighten up we were just having a little fun at Zuko's expense." Aang just huffed and turned away but he noticed that Zuko's look had stayed curious and skeptical of Aang's fervent denial. "Could you guys leave I want to finish changing." He heard Sokka say to Zuko as they exited "You know with Aang as your sister's boyfriend your days as Firelord might be numbered." Katara looked at him and said "Aang they were just joking why'd you get so mad?" Aang snapped back "I don't want to talk about it Katara now could you please leave too." Katara just said "Ok Aang no problem." as she closed the door behind her after she exited.

He finished changing then walked out into the living room and said to all of them gathered there "I'm sorry guys I don't know why I got so mad about your joking." Katara smiled at him and said "Don't worry Aang let's head to the Jasmine Dragon, Iroh closed it tonight specially so we'll have it all to ourselves for the party." He took Katara by the hand and all of them exited the house and started to make their way toward the tea shop. Aang dropped back to talk to Sokka "Hey buddy I found another meteorite, I'm giving a piece to Toph for her birthday, but I saved the rest so maybe you can make another space sword." Sokka got a huge grin on his face and said, "Aang I love you, you are absolutely the best friend a guy could ask for." then he hugged Aang.

They all got to the tea shop and as they entered they saw Toph sitting there with her feet up on a table talking to Iroh. She turned towards the front door and said "Finally I thought maybe you guys forgot about me." Everybody ran over to her and they all exchanged hellos and Happy Birthday's, and everyone asked Toph about her metal bending academy. She said confidently. "Oh well I'm the best earhbender in the world so I'm not surprised that none of my students have figured out to do much more than bend it just a little." They sat down around the giant table Iroh had pulled into the middle and exchanged stories and laughs as the waiters brought out the tea and the courses. All of them wanted to hear about how Toph was as a teacher and Aang said "I'd enroll but I know how much of a pain the headmistress is so I steered clear." As he finished saying that Toph made his spoon fly out of his soup bowl and whack him in the face as everyone laughed as she said "No one wants to hear your opinion Twinkle Toes."

They finished dinner and then brought out a huge birthday cake with fifteen candles on it, Toph smiled as they all sang happy birthday, then she blew the candles out, but Aang quickly re-ignited them with some firebending and said "Geez Toph put some air into it, I thought fifteen candles would be easy for someone with a mouth as big as yours." She stared over in his general direction and said "Not funny twinkle toes firebend again and I'll rock blast you out of here." She blew em out again but this time Zuko re-ignited em and everyone laughed, but then the chair Zuko was sitting on had a giant rock blast it up in the sky and Zuko went flying out of his chair and everyone laughed even harder. "Nice try Mr. Sparkypants but I see everything." Toph said with a smile as she blew out the candles for the last time, everyone smiling and laughing. They finished eating the cake, everyone still joking and enjoying themselves.

After everything was clear again Toph switched to a more serious tone and asked "So has anyone had a lead on where Azula is, I know she's been gone for a while and if there was one bad guy who's a danger to this tentative peace it would be her?" Sokka laughed as he joked "Just ask Aang, he's the one who is dating her." Aang felt his heart start to pound nervously and he saw Toph turn towards him, oh crap he said to himself as he lifted his feet off the ground, he didn't want Toph reading his heart rate when they were talking about Azula. "What do you mean Aang is dating her, that's just crazy." Toph asked confused. Katara tried to explain "Well Zuko was being all paranoid at the house today and questioned Aang about dating her so we've all been busting on him for how stupid that is." "I just heard a rumor in the Fire Nation and asked Aang about it ok, we've all blown this way out of proportion." Zuko said in a defensive voice. "Oh Toph" replied "So has anyone actually heard or seen any clues to where she is?" she then asked. The whole gang said nope or some other denial to that effect and Aang chirped in "It's your birthday Toph let's talk about something a little more fun." Sokka clapped Aang on the back and said "Baldies right, let's talk about something more fun, so Toph who have you been dating?" he said winking at her. She earthbended a rock from under his seat and shot him up into the air just like she did to Zuko earlier.

They all went back to joking and talking over the table, but later in the night Toph pulled Aang aside and questioned him "What's up twinkle toes you know something about Azula that you're hiding from the rest of us." Aang made an offended sound and said "No way Toph, I don't know what you are talking about." he looked at her hopefully, but then was defeated when she just said "You're a worse liar then most." He looked at her pleadingly and said "If I talk to you you have to promise not to tell anyone else." Just as he said this an earth Kingdom courier burst in the door and said "Firelord Zuko you must look at this it is urgent." Zuko walked over and grabbed it reading what was on the document and a look of horror washed over his face. He turned to the group and said "This is bad, there is a rebel Fire Nation army led by General Zato making it's way towards the capitol. Also they apprehended a spy and he gave away their plans and apparently there is a contingent of elite troops heading to the Southern Air Temple to take out Aang."

Katara shrieked and said "Oh well at least Aang is safe here with the rest of us." Aang felt his heart drop in his chest, as he thought, oh no Azula is there all by herself. Toph turned to look at him it seemed she could tell how distraught he was as he burst towards the door saying "I have to go protect the temple, you all head to the fire Nation and stop the rebellion there I will join you when I can." Sokka looked at him and said "But Aang the temple is deserted, they are wasting their time, just come help us fight the main army." Aang turned to Sokka and just said "No, I've already let my home be destroyed once I won't again." Katara said "Let me go with you then Aang you need some help." Aang was searching his brain for an excuse not to bring herand panicked but Toph saved him "I'll go with him Katara, I don't get to see him nearly enough, the capitol will need all the help it can get though so the rest of you go with Zuko in his Zeppelin." Katara looked at Aang expecting him to tell Toph he was going to take Katara but Aang said "Yea don't worry I'll bring Toph, we'll be ok" Katara looked hurt but accepted it and said "Ok I guess, we should all head to Zuko's airship." She walked over to Aang and gave him a soft kiss and said "Be careful." He hugged her and then kissed her again and said "You too Katara. Let's go Toph."

The whole group walked out the door, and everyone exchanged hugs and goodbyes and warnings to be careful. Theen the rest of the group headed towards where Zuko's ship was parked as Toph and Aang walked towards his house where Appa was. Once everyone else was out of earshot Toph turned and said "What the hell is going on Twinkle Toes, I know you know something about Azula and it's got you freaked out." He replied "It's a long story, let's just get to Appa and head out." Toph said "Fine, but once we get to fuzzball you've got a lot of explaining to do, and I want to hear everything." Aang sighed as he begrudgingly said "Deal."


	11. Chapter 11

Chapter 11 A Battle At The Southern Air Temple

Toph and Aang hopped on the back of Appa and Aang said "Yip, Yip" as they took off. Toph turned to him and said "This let's talk on Appa thing had better not be an attempt at you trying to lie to me since we're in the sky." Aang just said "No Toph I've kinda actually wanted to tell someone about this anyway, but no one else can know till I tell them." Toph seemed curious and said "What has Azula done to you, where did you see her?" Aang swallowed nervously and said "Well ummm you see the thing is she's kinda been living with me for the past few weeks." "What" Toph screamed in shock. Aang said "She's been at the temple with me for almost the entire time she's been missing." Toph looked confused as she asked "I don't get it if you captured her, then why wouldn't you bring her back to the Fire Nation?" "Toph she's not my prisoner, she's my friend." Toph was still looking confused as she asked "So the jokes about you dating Azula were real? Yuck!" Aang said defensively "I'm not dating her I've just been living with her." Toph asked "But the girl Zuko heard you were on the beach with was actually Azula?" Aang said "yes."

Toph sat there quietly for a few minutes confusion seemingly permanently etched on her face but she then started to laugh. Aang seemed puzzled by her reaction then heard her say "Good one twinkle toes, now what is the real story." Aang mustered up his most serious voice and said "Toph that is the truth, Azula wants to change and she came to me for help, she's been staying at the temple with me and we've actually grown to be really good friends. She's actually fun and smart and awesome to be around when she's not trying to kill you." Toph seemed concern "How are you sure she's not just trying to get you to lower your guard so she can take you down." Aang said "If she wanted to kill me she's had plenty of chances, so I'm sure if that was her goal I'd already be dead." "But Aang she's pure evil she has to have something up her sleeve, you are crazy to trust her." Toph answered back. Aang just smiled at Toph as he said "I know it seems crazy, but I trust her just as much as I trust you or Sokka or even Katara, so I'm asking as a personal favor to me, Toph just give her a chance like you were willing to give Zuko a chance. Most importantly even if you don't accept her at first this has to stay between you and me, I'm begging you."

Toph seemed lost in thought for minutes and finely said "Fine twinkle toes I'll give her a chance, but when we show up to the temple and we have to fight a bunch of Firebenders led by Azula I am going to tell you I told you so." Aang smiled and said "Thanks Toph, hopefully we can get there before they do I'm worried about her, she's so stubborn she'll try to fight them all by herself." Toph still seemed very skeptical but said "Don't worry Aang she's more than capable of taking care of herself, or us" the last bit was said softly under her breath. Aang smiled even bigger and said "I know you'll learn to love her like I do Toph she's a tough no nonsense girl just like yourself." Toph asked "so what do you and Miss Sparkypants do all alone in your temple, I can only imagine why you don't want Sokka or Katara to find out." Aang blushed profusely as he blurted out "It's not like that, we just meditate and train and battle, sparring with her has got me at the top of my fighting game." The rest of the trip to the Air Temple before they passed out sleeping was spent with Toph making fun of Aang and Azula as a couple.

As they neared the temple Appa roared to wake them both up and Aang hopped down, and his heart dropped as he saw a Fire Nation war balloon floating over the temple. He screamed "Toph wake up they are here." She popped up and said "Ooh there is nothing I like more than kicking the crap out of some firebenders first thing in the morning." Once the courtyard came into view Aang saw some blue flames and a bunch of red flames blasting back at one another. Aang turned to Toph and said "She's already fighting like five of them by herself, I'm jumping down, be ready for action once Appa touches down." Once he finished he jumped off Appa's back and turned into a nosedive so he could get down quicker. As the courtyard came into view he saw what appeared to be a tired looking Azula with her back against the temple doors, five different sets of flameblasts firing at her and she seemed to be barely beating them off. He landed with a great deal of force and sent an earth shock wave towards the five firebenders attacking her. They seemed to be taken totally by surprise and the shockwave sent them flying off in several directions.

Azula looked over gratefully to Aang and said "Nice of you to show up, I was about to let them just take this place over." Aang laughed and said "Haha that would be worse for you I've got like ten homes and this is your only one." The firebenders recovered and the one who seemed like there leader said "There he is boys, let's take down the Avatar." Three flameblasts came flying towards Aang but he swung his staff at them and knocked them off to the side with an air blast. One of the firebenders came running at him and started to do a flip to send a flame blast his way but Azula whipped a blue flame whip at him and sent him spiraling off to the side. One of them fired up high into the sky and started raining flames down all around Aang. He built a quick Shelf of earth over his head and ducked under it he said "Azula get under here", but then he saw her make a rocket booster behind her and shot up in the sky after the firebender. While in the air he saw her do a flip and shoot a very strong flame kick that hit the guy in the air square in the chest and he fell to the earth. The three remaining firebenders lined up next to each other preparing to attack Aang. Azula landed right next to Aang, she said "Now that we're both here these guys have no chance." The rebel firebenders started to attack but suddenly the earth underneath them became a whirlwind of quicksand and soon they were all three buried up to their necks in earth. "Hey twinkle toes, don't forget about me." Aang heard Toph say as she walked towards he and Azula.

Azula tensed and looked at Aang, he said "I'm a terrible liar, she knew I knew where you were and the only way I could keep her from telling everyone else was to bring her. I'm sorry Azula." Toph quickly imprisoned the two rebel firebenders who fell earlier in earth and said "So you're on our side now huh Princess?" Azula let her guard down and said "I don't know about the rest of you but I am on Aang's side." Toph turned to her and said "What does that mean?" Azula's face turned stern as she said "I trust Aang and I will always be on his side, as for the rest of you I'm not going to attack you anymore, for Aang' sake, but I think given all of our pasts it's going to be hard for any of us to become to close, at least for now." Toph laughed "Fair enough, I still think that you have some sort of evil ulterior motive." Aang cut in "Come on Toph, she just fought with us, I'm telling you she's trying to be a good guy." Toph then finished "But as a favor to Aang I'll keep your secret,just know that when you step out of line I'll be right here to kick your butt back into prison where you belong." Azula laughed and smirked "I'd like to see you try." Aang said "That's enough, I don't want to see you two fight, Toph thanks for agreeing to keep Azula being here a secret. Azula I trust Toph so if she says she'll keep my secret you should believe it too." Both girls stood there firmly having a blind vs seeing stareoff but Azula finally turned away and said "Fine, I'm going to my room Aang, I'll let you two decide what to do with the prisoners." then she stormed off towards the temple.

Aang looked over at Toph and said "She's not as bad as she seems really Toph." Toph replied "Who you want to spend your time with is up to you baldie, I'm not going to like her, but I will keep quiet for a while, but you're going to have to tell everyone else, especially Katara eventually." Aang said "I know, and I will, thanks again Toph, I'll send my messenger hawk to the Fire Nation and have them send a zeppelin out here for you to head back, plus it can pick up the prisoners." Toph sat down and said "Whatever" Aang turned around and said "I'll go get the hawk plus I'm gonna go talk to Azula."

He headed up to the top level of the temple where he kept his messenger hawk and attached a note for the nearest Fire Nation military base. He then headed for Azula's room and saw the door was closed. He knocked and he heard Azula say in an agitated voice "What is it." Aang asked "Can I come in please Azula." she replied back "I don't care." He slowly opened the door and saw her rubbing some ointment on a burn on her arm. "Did they get you?" he asked concern apparent in his voice. She laughed and said "Nothing I couldn't handle. No firebender can even hold a candle to me." Aang said sweetly "I know Azula you are the strongest, but no matter how strong you are you still need help sometimes." She seemed to be growing more annoyed by the second "Look Aang I'm fine I don't need anyone and especially not you to baby me." Aang said "I'm really sorry I let it slip to someone that you were here, but don't worry, even if more people find out I'll never let them throw you in prison again, this is your home for as long as you want it to be."

Azula smiled and said in a bitterly sarcastic voice "Well thank the spirits I have my very own Avatar to look after my pathetic and weak self." Aang frowned and said "You know I didn't mean it like that Azula, I know you're mad at me so I'm gonna leave you alone." He opened the door and as he walked into the hallway he stuck his head back through the door and said "I'm really sorry Toph found out, but I'm really glad that you are ok and that I could help save you even if you didn't need it." Then he closed the door.

Azula lay on her bed running things over in her head. She was glad that General Zato's rebellion had started, she was also glad that the avatar was here and separated from his girlfriend. Now she just had to hope that the water tribe girl was staying at the palace with her brother. As soon as she had seen the war balloon with the rebels approach the temple she had sent a coded message to the guard in Zuko's palace that was loyal to her. The message said to be ready to enact her plan as soon as possible. She was actually very nervous about this part of her plan because it was so crucial to get her brother and the avatar's girlfriend in bed together, and she had no direct influence on the outcome. She just had to have faith that her subordinates would not fail her, all she could do was to make sure when the plan worked the avatar would be ready to come running to her. She would rest for a little bit and then she was going to go talk to him and apologize for their little fight earlier she wanted him to be happy with her when he left for the Fire Nation. She closed her eyes, her mind slowly emptying as she let sleep wash over her.


	12. Chapter 12

Chapter 12 A Shot To The Heart

After he left Azula's room Aang figured he should go deal with Toph. He was sure that now that they were away from Azula she was going to give him some sort of lecture about how he was crazy for having her here and how she couldn't be trusted. He stepped out to the courtyard to see her standing there taunting the captured firebenders. She turned towards him and said "So Baldie, how's your girlfriend doing?" Aang just sighed and said "She's not my girlfriend Toph, I'm just trying to help her, she's got no one." Toph sighed back at him and said "You're just too nice for your own good sometimes twinkle toes." Aang laughed and said "You've got to be nice and patient to have a pain in the ass like you as a friend Toph, so Azula is a walk in the park." Toph smiled and laughed.

Toph asked "So what are we doing about these losers?" Aang said "We'll wait here till the Fire Nation sends a Zeppelin to pick em up and then I think you should escort em to prison and I'll take Appa and head to check out how everyone else is doing." Toph smiled and said "Don't worry they got Sokka with em, nobody's tougher than him." Aang just laughed and said "Yep nobody can take Sokka down." They sat quietly for a few minutes and then Aang said "I thought for sure you were gonna tell me off for having Azula here." Toph replied "Well I figure you're the avatar and you can take care of yourself. You just have to promise me that I can be there when you tell Katara, I want to see her kill you." Aang smiled and said "Deal, I may need you there to protect me anyway." Then they both broke out in laughter.

Toph said "Got any food around here I'm starving?" Aang got up and said "I can make you a nice traditional Air Nomad meal." Toph made a disgusted face and replied "I had hoped that since Azula was here you might have some real food, but sure sign me up for some veggie pies or whatever crap it is you wimps eat." Aang said "Just because I don't like meat doesn't make me a wimp Toph, and you'll probably like it, it's grown on Azula." She teased back "Ooh I'm so glad your princess likes it, how does she repay you for cooking for her, I bet it's with kisses." Aang just stormed off and said "Whatever Toph I'll go make you lunch despite your attitude." He heard Toph shout as he walked away "Just pop in Azula's room I'll sure she'll make you feel better."

Aang made lunch and he and Toph sat out in the courtyard enjoying it. Toph spent most of the meal cracking jokes at Aang's expense, but he mostly just let it roll off his back. He had almost forgot what spending time with his old friend was like and he knew that the more Toph made fun of you the more she actually cared. Spending most of the day with Toph did make Aang worry about Azula. She hadn't left her room since that near disastrous meeting this morning. He guess that he always knew that it would be rough for everyone to accept her, but it wasn't until he saw an actual interaction between her and one of his friends that it actually hit him how difficult this was. Azula was very guarded, and even though he didn't know exactly what happened between Azula and Mai and Ty Lee he was sure that it had done some pretty serious damage to Azula. Oh well he trusted Toph to keep his secret and he would just have to work on softening Azula up before the rest of his friends found out about her. He would just make sure that he never betrayed her trust, he was going to have to try something to make up for bringing Toph here.

Toph had decided to take a nap after she and Aang had talked for much of the day after lunch. So he decided he'd try and go have another talk with Azula, maybe she would be in a better mood. He knocked on her door and she said "Come in Aang." He opened the door and took a step in, he saw her laying on her bed with her back to him. He said "I really am sorry, I never meant to betray your trust Azula." She turned and said "It's Ok Aang, I never really thought you betrayed me, and I'm sorry that I couldn't get along with the blind girl." He said "Don't worry Azula, I know it's going to take a lot for you and my friends to get along but I have faith that it will happen eventually and that it will be worth it." Azula just said very meekly "I hope so Aang."

He went over and sat on the bed next to her. He locked eyes with her and just gazed in the golden orbs for a minute before saying "No matter what happens, I'm really glad you're here. I know you have had a hard time trusting anyone, Zuko, Mai, Ty Lee, they all turned on you, but I promise I'll be here for you no matter what you need." She just smiled a bittersweet smile and said "I know you will Aang, you make me feel things I've never felt before. I had a hard time when everyone else turned on me, but I never trusted them like I trust you Aang. I don't know what I'd do if you ever..." He just shushed her and gave her a big hug "Azula don't worry I swear I'll always be on your side." They just held each other in silence for a few minutes.

Azula finally pulled away and said "Thanks Aang, I really think coming here to be with you was the best decision I ever made." Aang smiled at her and said "I think it was too." She came forward to hug him again, he was so happy to have her back in his arms. He knew that he loved Katara, he had known it since he first laid eyes on her, but at times like this when Azula was in his arms he had feelings unlike anything he had ever felt before. For years Aang thought love was simple, and even when he was unsure of how Katara felt about him he could never see himself with any girl other than her. Now he and Katara had been a couple for about a year now and yet here he was holding another girl in his arms never wanting to let go.

He wondered how Azula felt about him, he remembered that night they almost kissed. She had said that she wanted him to kiss her, maybe she wants me to kiss her now. He pulled back a little from their hug and looked deep into her intoxicating eyes, she stared back with a beautiful intensity and a desperate longing. He was sure that she wanted him and he knew there was an ever growing part of himself that wanted to surrender to her. He turned away and said "I'm sorry Azula." She looked confused and said "Aang what are you sorry for, I forgave you for bringing Toph here." He said "No not about that, well I am sorry about that but..." she just smiled as she cut him off saying "Aang don't worry about it, I know that you're with that other girl, I'm not trying to get in the way of that." He saw sadness in her eyes, he pulled her into another hug, "I know you could never feel about me like you do for her, I'm just glad that you have any feelings for me at all." she said quietly as they hugged.

Aang felt terrible, he wanted to tell Azula how much he cared about her, even loved her, but that wouldn't be fair to her or Katara. When did his life get so complicated, it was so much easier when all he had to do was save the world. Now he had such strong feelings for two different girls and he had to deny the feelings for the one he was around all the time. He pulled away and said "The fire nation airship should arrive soon, then I am going to head to the capitol and see how everyone else is fairing against the rebellion." Azula smiled at him and said "Of course Aang, don't worry about me, go save the rest of the world I've already had my fill of the avatar today anyway." He smiled as he walked out saying "I'll be back as soon as possible."

He went back out in the courtyard and saw Toph zonked out in the middle of it, all five firebenders still in their rocky prisons. He went towards Appa's stable and threw some melons in front of his oldest companion. Appa happily inhaled them, then he tackled Aang and started to lick him. They spent the next hour playing around just the two of them. As dusk approached Aang saw a zeppelin closing in on the temple. He went out and told Toph to wake up then ran in the temple and knocked on Azula's door and said "Fire Nation soldiers are here, just stay in your room."

The Zeppelin landed and the soldiers came and quickly rounded up the rebels, the commander shaking hands and thanking Aang for his help. Aang told him to take Toph and after they dropped off the prisoners to take Toph home or wherever she wanted to go. She smiled and said "I've always wanted to command my own Airship." She then punched Aang in the shoulder and said "Don't worry twinkle toes your secret is safe with me, just be careful." Aang said "Sure thing Toph." as he waved to her as she climbed aboard the Zeppelin.

Once he saw the zeppelin start to fade away he went to Azula's room and knocked. She said "Come in." He poked his head in and said "they're gone, I'm heading into the Fire Nation now, you've got the place all to yourself, have fun." She smiled and said "I will, I'll miss you, it's never as fun when you aren't here." He smiled back and said "Don't worry Azula I won't be gone for too long, I'm sure that Katara and your brother took care of the rest of the rebellion no problem. See you later, I'll miss you too." He closed the door and headed for Appa.

Leaving now he should get to the Fire Nation capitol by early morning. As he and Appa took off into the early evening sky Aang's mind was awash with a lot of confusing and troubling thoughts. He was concerned about leaving Azula alone at the temple for too long. He hadn't thought about this at first but when the firebenders they had defeated were interrogated they would probably mention something about Azula being at the temple. Aang was unsure about how Zuko would take the news that Aang had been hiding his sister, but he wouldn't put it past the young Firelord to send a party to catpture her without consulting Aang. The entire fiasco and how suspicious Zuko seemed at Toph's birthday just last night had Aang even more concerned about this. So Aang would just have to head back to Azula once he discovered that everyone else was all right. He would have to get back to the temple to make sure that he was there to support Azula no matter what consequences came. He thought that maybe he should just come clean about the whole thing with everyone. He was afraid of doing that though because if he told everyone that might hurt Azula or make her think that she couldn't trust him. He knew that despite as much progress as she had made that if she felt betrayed by him it might cause her to slip back into her dangerous old self.

This was all so complicated. It seemed unlikely that hiding her at the temple and no one knowing about it was going to last much longer, and when his friends discovered that he was keeping such a big secret they would all be mad at him. But if he told them now, they would still probably be mad at him and he was sure that he would lose Azula's trust. He knew that she needed him more than anyone else, he was her only friend in the entire world now. Aang realized that he had to keep the secret for as long as possible, Azula was so close to being healed he had to be by her side no matter what and see this through till the end. He patted Appa's head and said "I know you won't be mad at me boy, I may need you to have my back when Sokka and Zuko try to kill me." Appa just groaned into the night sky and Aang laughed. Aang spent the rest of the night trying to distract himself with more carefree thoughts and the occasional nap during the long trip to the capitol.

Appa landed just outside the Firelord's palace and shook himself to wake Aang up. Aang hopped down and saw the morning sun just starting to poke over the horizon, he said "Head to the stables buddy I'm sure they'll give you some food." Appa walked off towards the royal stables as Aang approached the entrance to the palace. The two guards standing at the front said "Good morning Avatar." Aang smiled and said "Morning hotmen, is Zuko home." The guards replied "Yes he and Mistress Katara returned last night after fighting in a short and victorious battle." That made Aang smile, he said "I'm just gonna head to my room to see Katara." The guard replied "Of Course Avatar."

Aang walked through the palace, not many people were up and no one bothered him as he went to the room in the palace that he and Katara shared when they were here together. He opened the door and was surprised to see that not only was the bed empty but appeared to have not been slept in at all. He walked back into the hallway and approached the nearest guard and asked "Did you see Katara come by here recently." He replied "I have not seen her all night Avatar and I've been at this post for several hours." Aang panicked, maybe something had happened to her, maybe the rebellion was not as defeated as the guard at the front made it appear to be. He took off at an Air Nomad sprint towards Zuko's room, maybe he would know what had happened.

He blew past the two guards who were right outside Zuko's door and he burst through the door. He screamed "Zuko have you seen..." but then he felt a sharp pain in his heart like he had not felt since that battle in Ba Sing Se when actual lightning had been shot through it. He fell to his knees as his eyes took in the scene before him, Katara and Zuko's clothes were scattered around the room and he saw Zuko pop his head up as his arm was laid across the seemingly bare chest of Katara. Tears filled Aang's eyes as Zuko looked around confused and said "Aang why are you in my bedroom and who is... ohhh." Zuko saw who was next to him in bed and then turned back to see Aang who was still on the floor tears still in his eyes. Zuko said "Aang, I don't know what happened this isn't what it looks like." Just then Katara started to wake up and she groggily said "What's with all this noise." Aang stood up and with a cold fury burning in his voice said "Oh I'm so sorry to wake you Katara, but don't worry I won't ever bother you again." With that Aang stood up and turned away walking towards the door. Katara looked around and saw she was naked in bed with Zuko and saw Aang walking out the door. She looked shocked at Zuko and screamed "What is going on here Zuko!" He said "I don't know." Katara wrapped the blanket around herself and started to run after Aang who was moving away from the scene as quickly as possible.

She screamed "Aang please stop, I need to talk to you, please." He stopped moving but kept his back to her. She started to cry "Aang I'm still not sure what happened but" Aang cut her off "I don't want to hear it Katara, I just wish you would've told me rather than making me see it for myself." She said "Told you what, I'm not with Zuko, I love you Aang." Aang laughed "I'm a big boy now Katara, I know that you were just with me out of a sense of duty because I'm the Avatar, you and Zuko can be happy together now. I don't care." He started walking away again. She pleaded "Aang stop please, I'm Sorry, I still love you." He turned tears on his cheeks and said"How much did you love me last night?" She looked shocked and was stunned by his words. Aang turned again walking away and said "That's what I thought." She grabbed his arm and said "Aang don't go." He waved his other arm and blew her off with a strong air blast, she fell back about 10 feet. "Don't touch me ever again Katara."

Sokka burst out of his room with his sword drawn saying "Who's attacking the palace at this time of the morning, oh hey Aang glad to see you. What caused all this commotion?" Sokka looked around confused but seeing Katara lying on the ground in nothing but a blanket crying her eyes out made his protective brotherly instincts kick in. Sokka said in an angry voice "Aang what did you do to my sister." Aang just laughed and turned as he reached the door and said tears still in his eyes "Nothing Sokka I was just the first to congratulate her on becoming the new Firelady." Then he left the palace leaving a crying Katara and a bewildered Sokka in his wake.


	13. Chapter 13

Chapter 13 A Dreaming Azula

Azula left her room about an hour after the avatar said he was leaving. She walked into the courtyard of the temple and saw the aftermath of the battle that had occurred this morning. She was concerned that the rebel firebenders that attacked her would let the world know that she was living with the avatar. The avatar was weakening towards her, but she feared that all the pressure the outside world might put on him for hiding her would strain their budding relationship. There was no doubt in her mind that he would support her and not let anyone arrest her, but if some of his friends came here to try and help him rehabilitate her then it would cut into there alone time together which was essential to bending him to her will.

The other thing that was troubling her was how little control she had over the elements of her plan that were outside of this temple. The one thing that could turn the avatar against her was if he discovered that she was trying to sabotage his relationship with the water tribe girl. She believed that as the rightful heir to the throne many people in the Fire Nation were still loyal to her, and hoped that even if the royal guards who supported her got caught that they would not turn on her. Soon she would see if her plan had any hope of success. If things worked perfectly then Zato's rebellion would give them the chance to set up her brother and the water tribe girl tonight, and then the avatar would witness it tomorrow morning.

She laughed to herself as she thought how long and tedious the next day or two would be as her fate was decided in the Fire Nation and she would be sitting here doing nothing. The battle this morning had really gotten her blood flowing and she hoped that soon she would be able to defeat her brother and take her rightful place on the throne. Sitting here for the past weeks was starting to get to her. She found herself missing Aang every time he left, and when she thought about him and the other girl it made her burn. She was not pleased that he was having this sort of affect on her, but she couldn't deny that he did.

The Avatar was such a frustrating figure to Azula, she wanted to hate him and only use him as a pawn. However the more she spent time with him and the more he trusted and cared about her it made her feel like someone truly loved her for who she was and not just because she was the Fire Princess. She had never dealt with that before and it made her feel both uncomfortable and warm all at once. When the avatar held her in his arms she really did feel loved, and when he looked in her eyes she wanted him to kiss her. She could only blame so much on being lonely, she couldn't deny that the Avatar was an attractive young man and if she thought about it he did mostly fit the man she had always imagined marrying as a little girl. While most young girls imagined marrying a handsome prince they fell in love with or something like that, Azula just wanted to rule the world as Firelord. She imagined that when she got married it would be to a powerful man who would be a great ally. There was no man more powerful in the world than the Avatar.

Azula made herself dinner as she let her mind swirl with thoughts about the Avatar and everything else that had been bothering her. She sat out under the stars and ate peacefully letting herself enjoy the serenity of the beautiful night sky and scenic view of the Air Temple. Azula lay out looking into the night sky thinking about the constellations she had learned about at the Royal Fire Academy. Eventually she drifted off to sleep.

_Azula was standing there in a traditional fiery red wedding gown that all female royalty was wedded in. She looked at herself in the mirror as Ty Lee was fussing with her hair, then Ty Lee said with a giant smile "Wow Azula I've never seen someone look so beautiful." Azula continued to stare into the mirror and replied "Thank you Ty Lee, it truly is a great day." Ty Lee said "Yes Azula I can't wait for you and the Avatar to get married, you'll be the cutest and the most powerful couple in the world." Azula smiled and said. "Yes we will Ty Lee, Aang and I will make the world a great place for everyone." She heard the music starting and Ty Lee started to clap and say, "OOOh the ceremony is starting, let's go." Azula walked out of her room in the palace and started towards the throne room of the Fire Nation. As she stepped through the door she saw Aang standing in front of her father's throne dressed in traditional Firelord battle armor. She smiled as she thought how handsome he looked, and then he turned and looked in her eyes and gave her a smile that just sent her heart soaring. His eyes stayed locked on hers as she walked down the aisle to a wedding march. She approached the throne and he reached his hand out and pulled her to him. He then gave her a gentle kiss as he whispered in her ear "You look beautiful my love." They turned together to see the head fire sage standing there ready to perform the ceremony. He said all the introductory stuff of a wedding ceremony then he turned to Azula and said "Princess Azula do you take Aang to be your husband, to love and to cherish for all time." She smiled at Aang and said. "I do." Then the fire sage turned to Aang and said "And do you avatar take Princess Azula to be your wife to love and to cherish for all time." He just started laughing hysterically. Azula looked at him and said "Aang what is going on why are you laughing?" Through hysterical tears he said "Sokka never thought I could get this far, he didn't think you would be stupid enough to believe that I could love someone as evil as you." Azula fell to her knees as he said "Come here Katara, she thought we really broke up, hahaha, she thought I was going to marry her." Then the water tribe girl came out dressed in white as she pushed Azula out of the way. Katara turned to Azula and said "Don't worry I'll let you catch the bouquet." Azula was still on her knees as she saw Aang and Katara exchange rings and kisses, as they were married. Azula said, "Aang how could you do this to me." He looked down on her and laughed "All this time you thought you were in control, you thought you were fooling me, but I knew all along Azula. I knew you were evil and weak and pathetic, and I orchestrated all this just to prove to you how insignificant you are." Then they kissed one more time and Katara threw the bouquet right at Azula._

Her eyes opened as she shook her head to rid herself of the dream she just experienced. Azula got up off the ground and decided that she would spend the rest of the night sleeping in her room. She rubbed her eyes and looked at the stars one more time before she entered the temple doors. She got to her room and stripped out of her clothes and put on a red silk nightgown that had become her sleeping attire. She got into bed and hoped that another dream like the one she experienced earlier in the night would not come. She closed her eyes and let her mind wander for a while until she finally drifted off into sleep again.

_Azula was lying on her bed in her bedroom at the Royal Palace as she heard the door to her room open. In walked her mother Ursa who had a giant smile on her face. Azula sat up and said. "Mother what are you doing here?" Ursa came up to Azula and pulled her into a hug, and then said "Azula I'm so happy you're starting to go away from the monster that your father turned you into." Azula looked confused as her mother continued "It makes me proud of you that you are with the avatar, he's just the person you need to become the woman I always hoped you would become." Azula grew angry as she screamed at her mother "No mother, I will succeed where father failed, The avatar will not change me with his loving and caring ways! I am going to turn the avatar into my very own weapon with which I will bring the world to it's knees before me." Ursa just laughed and hugged her even tighter as she said. "Oh my little princess, you will soon find out just how wrong you are and always have been." Once she finished saying this Ursa gave Azula a light kiss on her forehead and then faded away into nothingness. Azula stood up and screamed as her entire room was engulfed in blue flames…._

Azula shot up out of bed as anger was racing through her brain. Azula remembered how she had started to see her mother just before she cracked at the end of the war. Well at least it was just a dream and she was not seeing her mother while she was awake. Nights like this made her wish that she could manipulate her own dreams so she would not be bothered by all this stuff that her subconscious seemed to be mulling over at night. She saw through her window that the morning sun was up fairly high in the sky so at least she had managed to get a good night's sleep before being disturbed by these dreams.

Azula made her way out to the courtyard, she decided that she would take a bath this morning in the clean stream just below the temple. She spent the rest of the morning and early afternoon relaxing and bathing alone in the stream sun shining down on her. The burn she received in the battle yesterday was still hurting but appeared to be getting a little better as the cool water of the stream washed over it. After spending about two hours in the water she made her way back to the temple to enjoy lunch.

The rest of the day went surprisingly quickly as she practiced her firebending forms. The early evening came and she saw the avatar's bison approaching on the horizon. Azula felt a nervous excitement race through her as he landed. She was hopeful that her plans worked. She also had a slight fear that perhaps someone had turned on her. She walked up to him as he jumped down off of the bison and said ""Hey Aang, how did everything go against the rebellion." He looked pained as he replied quietly "It's over, it was no problem." Azula said. "That's good Aang, everyone is fine then." He frowned as he said "Oh yea, they're all fine." And the he started to walk towards the temple. Azula said curiously "Aang are you ok, you seem upset about something?" Aang just said, "I'm fine Azula, I just need to be alone please." She backed off and said "Of course Aang, no problem."

He walked into the temple and closed the door. Azula stood out in the courtyard her brain was awash with thoughts. The avatar seemed not at all like his normal self, usually he was happy to see her after being away and they always talked for a while when he returned. She was pretty sure that something happened during his trip to the Fire Nation. She walked back out into the courtyard and continued her firebending practice. The avatar was acting so different she just had to go and talk to him to find out what was going on but thought it best to leave him alone to sulk in his room for a little bit.

Azula stayed in the courtyard for about ninety more minutes then headed into the temple to talk to the avatar. She approached his door and knocked and heard him shout back "Azula I said I wanted to be alone." She said "Look Aang I know something's bothering you, so I'm coming in no matter how much you complain." Azula opened the door and saw Aang sitting on his bed back turned to her. She walked over to him and put her hand on his shoulder as she said sweetly "Aang I don't know what it is, but you have been here for me these past weeks, I'm your friend and I care a lot about you please just talk to me and let me help you." Aang said "Really Azula it's nothing." She laughed and said "C'mon Aang you know you are a terrible liar I know something is bothering you." She sat down on the bed next to him and continued, "I'm not leaving till you tell me what's going on in that head of yours."

They sat there in silence for about five minutes then the silence was broken by a little chuckle from Aang and then he said. "You weren't kidding, you're not going to leave are you?" She turned to him and smiled as she said "Nope, so just tell me what happened." He sighed and said, "It's about Katara." She just nodded and said "Ok" He continued "Well I found her with somebody else this morning." He brushed a still forming tear off his cheek as Azula's mind lit up. It had happened, her plan worked, something had finally broke her way.

Azula hugged him and said, "That's terrible, I'm sorry Aang." Aang hugged her back and kept saying "I always worried that she didn't really love me that way, it just hurt so much to see it with my own eyes." Tears were starting to come down his face a little more aggressively. Azula squeezed him tighter and said, "It's ok Aang, it's not your fault, things will get better." The avatar said "The worst part was it was with Zuko, I thought we were friends how could he do this to me." Azula replied calmly "My brother is troubled Aang, he is never happy no matter what happens to him. He always wants what he doesn't have, when he was banished he wanted to come back to our family. When he was accepted by our family again he needed something else, he'll never be happy and you can never trust him."

They pulled back from there hug and Azula said "I know you loved her Aang, but don't worry there is someone out there who is right for you." Aang looked into her eyes his stormy gray eyes sill reddened with tears and smiled at her. Azula stared back intensely her mind was filled with a strange mixture of emotions. Mostly she was pleased that her plan was working so perfectly, but there was a little voice in the back of her mind that was sad that she had caused the avatar so much pain.

Aang broke the silence as he said "Thanks Azula, it really was much better to get all this off my chest." She pulled him into a hug and said "I'm just glad I could be there for you for once Aang." He pulled back and said looking deep into her bright golden eyes. "I'm just so happy that you are here with me, I don't know what I'd do without you." They held the stare for a few seconds and then Aang leaned in, his lips softly coming down on top of Azula's. She opened her mouth a little and let her tongue meet his as she felt her heart start to race, kissing was still a mostly new experience to her. This was also the first time that she was being kissed by a boy who she had feelings for, what they were was still very unclear but the feelings were definitely there.

The kiss went on for about 30 seconds and Azula pulled back. She had thought about this moment for a long time and had decided to make him come to her more than once. She said. "Aang stop, I'm not sure about this." He looked down sheepishly and said. "I'm sorry Azula, I thought you wanted me to kiss you." She put her hand on his cheek and gently nudged it up so that he was looking at her in the eyes and said, "Don't worry Aang I did and I do want you to kiss me, but it's important to me that I'm not just some girl that you use to get over Katara. You mean so much to me Aang and if we're going to take our relationship to the next level I need to be sure that it's real." Aang replied, "You could never be just some girl to me Azula, you're the most amazing and beautiful girl that I've ever met. You're a ferocious fighter and you can scare the hell out of anyone, but despite all the the violence and anger that has been around you for your entire life there is a caring and soft side to you that I've been lucky enough to see. I'm so happy that you trust me enough to open up to me and I think that I've been falling for you since that first night that you showed up here."

Azula stood up from the bed and said "Thanks Aang, I hope you mean all that. But Katara was your first love and I think you need to think about if you really are ready to move on." She walked out and said before she left "I really hope you feel better Aang, she didn't deserve you if she didn't know what she had." She continued down the hallway towards her room. Weeks ago when she came here she would never have imagined that her plan would come to fruition so easily. She changed out of her regular outfit and got into her nightgown as she went to bed. She wondered how long it would be before the avatar came to her "ready to move on". She lay awake in bed her mind swimming with all different kinds of thoughts until eventually she fell asleep.

_She was sitting on the sand at Obsidian Beach holding hands with the avatar. She turned to him and he smiled as he said "I know we weren't together at the time, but I'll always look at our first trip here as our first date." She squeezed his hand and said "I always thought of it as a date anyway, I saw you ogling me." He laughed and said "How could I not, you are just too beautiful for me to resist." She leaned in and they kissed softly. He pulled back and put his hand to her cheek and said, "I love you Azula." as he came in for another kiss. They kissed for several more minutes and fell back in the sand as they watched the sun set over the ocean. She had never felt so contented as she was held in Aang's arms with him running his fingers through her hair. _

She woke up with a smile as the warmth from her dream was still fresh in her mind. She got up out of bed and walked out into the courtyard. The sun was shining bright and by it's position she could tell that it was late morning. She didn't see Aang there and as she walked to Appa's stable she saw that he was gone. She laughed to herself she guessed the avatar went for a fly to work through his feelings. Suddenly though a new thought flew into her head that scared her. What if after thinking about it last night he decided to work it out with the water tribe girl. Her heart sank as she contemplated this. That would be the worst possible thing, not only would that destroy her plans to rule as Firelord, but then that would mean that Aang was going to be kissing and touching that other girl.

She just shook her head, as she told herself that just couldn't be happening. The avatar surely must be hers. She thought about the kiss they had shared last night. It was so much better than the kiss she had shared with Chan and she hoped Aang enjoyed it as much as her. She sighed and continued on with her daily routine eating and bathing then practicing her firebending. The whole day went by and she found herself growing more and more anxious at the absence of the avatar. She made herself dinner and then sat under the starts for several hours concern building through her system. Finally she went to her room and changed into her sleeping attire.

She was in bed for about twenty minutes when she heard a knock on her door and the avatar saying, "Azula are you awake?" She sat up and said "Sure Aang come in." He opened the door and took a step in and said "I gave what you said a lot of thought today Azula. Katara was my first love and I don't think that I can be over her completely in such a short time." He breathed a deep sigh and then continued "But that doesn't make what I feel for you any less strong Azula, I want to give us a try and I hope you feel the same way." Azula stood up and mentally breathed a sigh of relief as she came to him and pulled him into a hug. He looked into her eyes and then leaned in to kiss her. Their lips met and their tongues danced as the avatar finally surrendered to the desire that had been building in him for several weeks.

They stood in her doorway kissing for several more minutes and they finally broke apart. Aang pulled back smiling and said, "I guess that's a yes." Azula smiled back and said, "I just wanted to take the sting out of it cause that was definitely a no." She smirked at him and then took him by the hand and led him into her room. They sat down on her bed and started to kiss again very heatedly. Azula took Aang's hand and put it on her breast as their lips broke apart, she whispered in his ear seductively "No need to be shy Aang, it's just the two of us." He captured her lips once again and started to pull her nightgown down. She fell back on the bed and pulled him with her, she parted her legs and let him settle down mostly on top of her. She reached her hands inside his robes and started to caress his muscular chest.

They were kissing and touching very passionately for about five minutes when Aang pulled back and said, "Maybe we should stop now Azula." Azula stayed on her back and locked eyes with him, she could see the passion still burning in the back of them. She said "I want you Aang, there is no reason you can't be here with me tonight." Her hands were stroking his stomach as she could feel how strong his desire was. She was nervous about taking this huge step, but a part of her was very attracted to him and being with him sexually would only cement her hold over him. He blushed bright red and stammered "Uhhm well Azula it's just I've never." She silenced him with a kiss, and then said soothingly in his ear "Don't worry Aang neither have I, but tonight with you would just be perfect." She kissed him again and looked in his eyes and said, "I love you Aang, you're the only person I've ever really felt anything around. I want you to be my first love, my only love, my forever love."

Aang brought his lips down on hers again and kissed her hard before saying "I love you too Azula, this just feels so right." She wrapped her legs around him and pulled him fully on her bed and on top of her, she said "Take me now, I need you inside me Aang, make me yours." Aang couldn't take it anymore and finally fully surrendered to the passion that had been burning inside of him. He used his hands to pull her nightgown all the way down as he felt her hands pulling his pants down. Azula's heart was pounding as she felt him kissing her, and her breasts pushing into his chest. Then finally she felt the Avatar claim her, despite the pain she knew that this was right and that soon her destiny to rule the world would come to be.


	14. Chapter 14

Chapter 14 Katara Takes It Bad

Azula woke up as she saw the first rays of dawn creep through her window. She felt the arm of the avatar draped over her naked body. She rolled out from under him and grabbed her nightgown from the floor and a towel. She was going to head down and take a bath seeing as she was still sweaty and gross from her first sexual experience last night. She didn't really feel too different, just a little sore. She walked out into the courtyard and made her way down to the stream that she always bathed in. She slowly lowered herself into the water and laid back against the edge.

Azula let the cool water flow over her as she thought about last night. At first it had been painful and awkward, but the second time Aang took her it was less awkward and much longer, she was maybe even starting to enjoy it a little. Times like this she wished that she were still close to Mai and Ty Lee so she could have someone to talk to. She knew that her brother and Mai had been having sex for the months after he came back from Ba Sing Se with her. She also knew that Mai and Ty Lee talked about it a lot, and she had been a part of some of these conversations. Mai made it seem like for the first couple of weeks it was kind of strange and not very exciting, but slowly Zuko learned what he was doing and then Mai started to really enjoy it.

She was scrubbing her body with soap as she laughed to herself that she was sure the avatar would get better at this much quicker than her brother as Aang was superior to Zuko in every way. The more they had sex it would serve the dual purpose of hopefully making Aang more skilled at it and making him fall deeper and deeper under her sway. She remembered Mai talking about a flower, the kimoki flower that if you drank in tea or some other way would prevent you from becoming pregnant. She had plans to do great things in the coming year and would need no distractions.

Azula thought about the next aspect of her plan and that was for the avatar to support her, as she becomes Firelord. She figured the best way to do this was to drop subtle hints about how she always wanted to be firelord, and about how untrustworthy Zuko was and how he had already stabbed Aang in the back. Her plan had been so successful so far she was one thousand percent confident that everything else would run smoothly. She smiled as she could already picture herself on the dragon throne where she belonged.

Azula finished washing and then just relaxed in the water for about another hour. The sun was starting to rise into the sky as she got out of the water and started to dry herself off. She threw her nightgown on and wrapped her hair in a towel as she started to walk up the stairs back towards the courtyard. She figured if Aang was still out she'd do some firebending practice and let him sleep in for as long as he needed. Once Azula reached the top of the stairwell she saw a long dark-haired girl in blue robes that she recognized as Katara pacing back and forth. She thought this ought to be interesting.

Azula walked confidently into the courtyard pretending to not even notice the other girl. Katara stopped pacing and got a horrified look on her face as she saw Azula walk past her towards the temple doors. She quickly screamed, "Azula what the hell are you doing here, spirits, what did you do to Aang! I swear if you hurt him I'll leave nothing left of you to throw back in prison." Azula stopped and said " It's Katara right? Don't worry the avatar is fine." Katara had opened her waterbending pouches and the water had covered both her arms as she seemed to be getting ready to fight. The waterbender said firmly "Why are you here, and what did you do to Aang?" A smirk spread across Azula's face as she said "I did things to him your prude little self can only dream of now. But don't worry I here you got my brother as a consolation prize."

Katara's face turned red with anger as she quickly swung a water whip at Azula. Azula shot a fireblast to vaporize the water. Katara screamed at Azula as she whipped more water at her, "Tell me the truth, why you are here you evil bitch, where is Aang?" Azula did a quick back flip as she dodged the water attack and laughed as she landed and said "I will tell you the truth peasant, Aang is asleep in my room he's tired after last night, I really wore him out." She could see the rage boiling inside of the water tribe girl as she attacked very sporadically and pathetically with no focus. Azula kept dodging each attack and watched the frustration grow in her enemy. This girl had been the one to defeat her on the day of her coronation and Azula had been waiting for her chance to crush the peasant. Now though she realized that victory over the girl was already won. Azula had taken from this girl the love of the most powerful man in the world and the anger she was now displaying proved just how much it hurt her.

The water tribe girl finally got Azula by the ankle with her water whip and tripped her down to the ground. Azula was a bit frustrated that she couldn't really firebend at the girl but figured it would look best for her to be passive when Aang came to break this up. She felt the water around her legs freeze as Katara stood over her sharp intimidating icicles floating in front of her rage still burning in her eyes. Katara said threateningly "Now Azula tell me why you are here and what you did to Aang."

Suddenly she saw the peasant girl get pushed forward several feet and fall to her knees as she was hit with a powerful airblast. Aang's voice boomed through the courtyard "Katara what are you doing here, I told you I didn't want to see you." Katara turned towards him and said, "Aang thank the spirits, Azula is here to attack you, I stopped her." Azula just laughed as she melted the ice that was containing her and said "Did you hear that Aang she saved you from me." Aang turned to Azula and said firmly "I'll deal with her Azula, please just go inside." Katara looked horrified and confused as the two talked and she spoke up "Aang why are you letting her inside, what is going on here." Azula walked over towards the door and said softly "I'll be inside to talk when you finish with her, don't worry it will be all right, she can't hurt you anymore." She kissed him softly on the cheek and squeezed his hand. She walked towards the door to the temple but Aang pulled her back and gave her a deep hard kiss on the lips as he whispered in her ear "I love you." She then turned away a blush on her cheeks as she walked into the temple.

Katara was still on her knees paralyzed with confusion at the scene she had just witnessed. Aang walked towards her and said "Katara you shouldn't have come, I don't want to see you." Katara said meekly tears starting to fall from her eyes "What she said, what she told me, it's true isn't it?" Aang said, "I don't know what she said but if she told you she lives here that was true, she's been living here for the past few weeks." Katara said in an accusatory voice "And you and her, you've slept together." Aang said "Yes." Suddenly the tears seem to disappear and anger returned as she stood up and slapped Aang in the face shouting at him "You dare make such a big scene and treat me the way you did over what happened that morning when you've been fucking your own little whore all this time." Aang screamed back "Do not call Azula a whore, she's so much more than you ever were Katara, I thought I loved you, but now I feel one hundred times what I ever felt for you with Azula."

Katara started crying again as she eeked out "I don't understand Aang, how could you do this to me, why were cheating on me with the bitch who killed you." Aang shouted back defiantly "I wasn't cheating on you, she was here but we were only together for the first time last night. I wouldn't ever do that to someone I supposedly loved, unlike you Katara. How long have you and Zuko been going behind my back." Katara fell back to her knees and pleaded "Aang I don't know what happened, please forgive me, I don't love Zuko I still love you." Aang just laughed and said, "You love me Katara, haha you love me so much you just had to go and show Zuko how much you loved me." Katara said, "Aang we were drinking some wine after our victory, I just don't know what happened. I'm so sorry." A single tear fell down Aang's cheek as he said "Well Katara that makes me really believe in just how much you loved me." A sad laugh escaped him as he finished "You loved me so much that only a few glasses of wine could make you betray me. I'm done Katara, if you ever want me to get over this and be able to see you again I need you to leave now." Katara said "Aang I know you are hurt but Azula just can't be the answer, she is-" Aang cut her off and said "Don't say anything about her Katara, I don't want to hear it, I'm in love with her, she is my everything now so just leave. I'm going to go into the temple and when I come back out I expect you to be gone." With that Aang turned his back on Katara who was sobbing slumped over on the ground and walked into the temple.

Aang made his way down to Azula's room and knocked on the door, she said, "Come in Aang." He opened the door and saw her sitting on her bed and he took a seat next to her. Azula  
turned to him and said, "How are you doing?" He shrugged his shoulders and said, "Oh you know, we yelled at each other and then she cried and I cried then we yelled some more. I told her to leave, I hope she goes." Azula pulled him into a hug and said, "Don't worry Aang you don't need her anymore you've upgraded to a princess." Then she captured his lips with hers. They kissed for about a minute and then Aang pulled back and said, "Thank you Azula, two days ago I was broken, and now being with you I feel like I'm the luckiest man in the world." Azula smirked at him as she caressed his cheek and said, "You got me, that does make you the luckiest man in the world." Then she kissed him again.

She pulled out of the kiss and stood up quickly and said "Aang let's go somewhere." She grabbed his hand and pulled him up to his feet. Aang let her yank him up and said "Ok Azula  
where do you want to go." She smiled and said, "Let's fly to the closest Fire Nation city, as much as I appreciate all the clothes you've bought me I think I'd like to go shopping for some I pick out for myself. I think I'm ready to be introduced to the world as the avatar's girlfriend." Aang leaned in to kiss her and said "That makes me so happy I can't wait to be seen out in the world with my beautiful princess." They left her room and made their way to Appa and hopped on his back. Aang said "Yip, Yip" and Appa took off. Azula smiled as she watched the world pass beneath her, she was on her way back to her homeland and soon she would return for good triumphantly as Firelord.


	15. Chapter 15

Chapter 15 Ember Island

Azula looked down into the world below as she soared over it on the back of the avatar's bison. She saw Aang sitting on Appa's head and said to him "I was thinking maybe we should head to Ember Island, my father has a beach house there that's been abandoned for years. We could spend a night or two there." Aang climbed back up the bison's neck and hopped in the saddle next to Azula and said, "That's a great idea, I love that house." Azula looked at him questioningly and he smiled and said "Oh we lived there for a few weeks last year, your brother taught me firebending there." Azula laughed and smiled "So you hid from my father in his own house, that was clever." Aang smiled back at her and said, "You're not the only one with tricks up their sleeve Azula."

The two of them snuggled up in the saddle together and looked up into the sky. Azula said, "I've flown in a Zeppelin before, but this is really amazing. Every time I ride on the back of Appa it impresses me more and more." Aang turned her face towards him gently with his hand and softly kissed her on the lips. He pulled back and said, "Well princess I'm ready to be your personal chauffeur whenever you want one." She smiled at him and said, "Be careful I might just take you up on that." Aang replied, "I hope that you do." The rest of the flight to Ember Island went peacefully Azula eventually dozing off.

Appa landed in the large backyard of the Firelord's house, it was early evening. Azula jumped down off the bison and said, "Well Aang since you've lived here recently perhaps you could give me the grand tour." Aang held his arm out towards Azula and said "Why of course my lady." They walked around the house arm in arm as Aang made an overly showy example of being a pretend tour guide. Azula said "Why don't you go into town and pick us up some food, we can go have a picnic on the beach. We'll go around town together tomorrow." Aang smiled and said, "A picnic on the beach sounds like a great idea, I will go get us some food." He kissed her and then headed out of the house saying he'd be back in about an hour.

She went to her parent's bedroom and lay down in their bed. This was the Firelord's bed, the first part of her birthright she had been able to reclaim. Now that she was away on a romantic weekend with the avatar she was hopeful that soon the rest of the perks of being Firelord would follow.

The last time she was out in the Fire Nation with Aang she was hoping to not draw attention to herself, this time however she wanted everyone to know for sure that Fire Princess Azula was in Ember Island out on a date with the Avatar. Despite the fact that she was still technically a fugitive of the Fire Nation she figured that as long as she was with the avatar no one would dare approach her. She was also positive that the spectacle of The Fire Princess and The Avatar out in the streets of Ember Island hand in hand would easily make it's way back to her brother. She knew Zuko well and between his recent betrayal of Aang and the news of the close relationship she had formed with the young airbender she was certain it would make Zuko extremely nervous. Hopefully he would panic and do something drastic that would only alienate himself further from the avatar and drive him closer to the conclusion that he should reinstate her as Firelord in place of her brother. She thought that it would be best if she didn't ask Aang to overthrow her brother, it would be much better if she manipulated it so that it was his idea so that she could continue to appear completely innocent and not at all power hungry.

Azula got up from the bed and gathered up a blanket from the dresser. She then went to the kitchen and gathered up some old dishes and utensils to take out to the beach; she also found a picnic basket to put all of them in. She went out to the backyard and cleaned off the dust that had accumulated from years of neglect in the fountain that was in the back. Eventually Aang came back with a big smile and said "I went a little crazy and bought a whole bunch of Fire Nation delicacies, I figured you might have missed them being stuck up in that temple all this time." Azula smiled and replied "Thank you Aang some food from the homeland will be wonderful, I found this basket throw the food in here." Aang put a whole bunch of food in the large basket and then he said, "Let's head down to the beach."

The two of them walked down the dunes and found a nice little spot about fifteen feet from the ocean to put the blanket down. They put the basket down on the blanket and opened it up, Azula pulled out several of the delicacies Aang had picked out for her and smiled as she thought about how sweet he was, he had gotten about ten different dishes just for her. Aang looked at her smiling and said, "I wasn't sure what you liked so I got some of everything, I wanted to make sure it was all perfect." She leaned over to kiss him and said "Thanks Aang you really make me feel like a princess again. For future reference you can always go with the komodochicken, that's been my favorite since I was a little girl." Aang said, "I'll remember that." As he pulled out the tofu dish that he had gotten for himself.

The two of them ate their meals happily as they sat under the stars. Aang said "It really is beautiful here, I'm glad we chose to come here." Azula just nodded and continued to eat. He asked, "So what do you want to do tomorrow?" Azula replied and said "Let's do some shopping, and I thought maybe we could go see a show at the Ember Island Playhouse. I think that they are funny." Aang sighed as not so fond memories of the last play he had seen there came into his head and replied, "Just so long as it's not about me." Azula laughed and said "Oh yes I remember that one about you, I do have to say that the woman who played you captured your character just about perfectly, except she wasn't quite as pretty as you." Aang looked down appearing to be hurt and Azula just laughed and leaned over to whisper in his ear "Don't worry Aang I was just joking, no one in the world knows better then I do just how manly you are." Then she squeezed his hand as he looked in her eyes and she kissed him fiercely.

Aang started to kiss back very aggressively and she felt his hand reach up to touch her chest. They continued to kiss under the stars for several minutes and eventually they broke apart. Aang looked at her holding her cheek in his hand and said, "Every second I spend with you is better then the last, I'm just so happy that we're together now." Azula returned his stare as she said, "For all my life I always thought things like love and caring were for the weak, but you have shown me that you can be strong and loving all at once." He pulled her close and put his arm around her as he looked up into the sky.

Even though Azula started this as a plan to retake her throne, the warmth of the avatar holding her and every time he kissed her made her feel better in a way she never knew existed. She had never had a boyfriend before and never thought there was much value in it, but being in his arms under the stars just felt right. She rested her head on his shoulder and looked up into the night sky with him.

"Let's head in." Aang said after they sat out on the beach for about another thirty minutes. He packed up what was left and threw it in the picnic basket as Azula picked up the blanket and shake the sand out of it. They walked back up the dunes hand in hand making their way back to the beach house. Once they got inside Azula said "I think I'm going to turn in Aang, I want to have an early start tomorrow." She kissed him and made her way up the stairs towards what was her parent's room. Aang replied, "That's a good idea, goodnight." He made his way towards the room on the first floor that he had stayed in previously. Azula said "Where are you going Aang, I thought you'd stay with me." He got a smile and said "Oh ok." As he happily followed her up the stairs.

They got in her parents room and she kissed Aang as she said, "I did mean to sleep tonight. I know last night was great, but I'm still a little sore so let's just take it easy." Aang pulled her in and squeezed her tight as he said sweetly to her "Last night was great for me too, so take as long as you need, just holding you in my arms all night will be enough for me." She went over to the closet and opened it up and started to take off her daytime clothes and slip on a nightgown. Azula finished changing and saw that Aang had already stripped off his robes and was lying in the bed in just his boxers. She got into bed next to him and got under the covers, she kissed him briefly and looked into his gray stormy eyes. He smiled at her and said "goodnight princess."

She kissed him one more time and turned over pulling his arm to wrap around her waist as she snuggled into his body. A few minutes went by Aang squeezing her close to him when she felt some kisses on her neck and Aang whispering, "I love you so much Azula." She smiled to herself and said "I love you too Aang, but no matter how sweet you are all we're doing is trying to sleep." He laughed and said, "I know, I know, but I just want you to know how much I care about you." She caressed the hand that was wrapped around her waist and replied, "Don't worry Aang I know." They spent the rest of the night in each other's arms and peacefully fell asleep together eventually.

The next morning Azula woke up, the avatar's arm still draped over her, his baldhead nuzzled up against her shoulders. She gently lifted his arm and rolled out from under his grasp. She looked at how peacefully he was lying there and smiled as she started to change into the clothes she would be wearing out on the town today. He started to stir after a few minutes and opened his eyes and said "Good morning beautiful." She gave him a stern look and said in a commanding voice "Let's get moving avatar I don't have all day to wait for you." He rolled over and sat up on the bed and chuckled "I think I'm starting to like when you order me around." She straddled his waist with her legs and kissed him hard as she said "I'm glad you like it cause it's going to be happening a lot from now on." He kissed her back and said, "I am your willing slave Azula." She got back up off him and said, "Well then be downstairs ready to go in ten minutes." She then turned and headed down the stairs.

Aang quickly got changed into his traditional air nomad robes and was downstairs ready to go in well under ten minutes. They left the house holding hands Aang asked Azula "Aren't you concerned people are going to recognize you." She smiled back and said "No Aang, I want them to see me with you. I want the world to know that we're together." Aang smiled back and said "Ok, besides no one will try to arrest you when you have the avatar beside you." They walked down the beach and Azula said "Let's go shopping first then maybe we can have some fun on the beach afterwards."

The two of them made their way into the main marketplace on Ember Island. Azula could notice that just like she wanted there were several people pointing and whispering as they witnessed her pass by hand in hand with the avatar. She stopped outside of the only herbalist shop and told Aang that she needed to buy some things in here. He gave her money and told her that he was going to watch a street performer who was juggling flaming objects in the street.

Azula entered the shop by herself and she walked up to the old woman behind the counter. "Hello there I need some petals of the kimoki flower please." The old woman bowed her head and said, "Of course princess." as she made her way towards the shelves in the back of the shop. Azula smirked at being referred to as princess by one of her subjects, she had missed that all this time as a prisoner and fugitive. The old woman came back and put a bag of flower petals on the counter. Azula reached in and started to gather the money Aang had given her but the old woman shook her head and said "No charge for royalty. But may I ask who the lucky young man is?" Azula grabbed the bag and said, "Thank you, and it is the Avatar." The old woman smiled a toothless smile and said, "Ooh the Fire Princess and the avatar, the world has never known a greater couple." Azula smirked at the old woman and said, "I could not agree more, thank you for your hospitality." She turned and exited the store.

She saw Aang had stopped watching the juggler and had joined him by floating on one of his air scooters and also juggling flames. Azula clapped loudly as she walked over but then said in a loud commanding voice "Aang stop goofing off and let's go." He extinguished the flames and waved to the on-lookers as he jumped to land right next to her. He said, "Sorry Azula, I just got caught up in the fun." She kissed him on the lips aggressively. She was pleased to see that the entire crowd was now staring at them as she broke apart from the kiss and said "That's ok sweety just let's go." He blushed a little as he realized the whole crowd had just watched them make out but took her hand happily as they made their way down the street.

They went into the most fancy tailor shop and were greeted by the proprietor. He saw them enter and said "Why hello Avatar what do I owe the pleasure of a visit from you today." He smiled and said, "I need you to take care of my girlfriend give her the royal treatment." The tailor looked over at Azula and made a confused face and replied, "Of course Avatar, I assume that this is your girlfriend." Aang just nodded. Azula felt good being catered to and pampered by the tailor and his staff. They spent several hours there as she ordered several custom outfits that he would need to make, but also got a few off the rack to wear in the near future. She gave the avatar a big and grateful deep kiss as she said "Thanks for that Aang I could tell you were really bored in there." He laughed and said "Was I that obvious?" She slid her arm inside his and said "Oh yea."

On their way to grab lunch they saw that the Ember Island Playhouse was staging a new play called "Escape From The Boiling Rock." Azula laughed and said, "I was there when that happened, so I'll probably be in it and not you. It should be safe to go." Aang shrugged his shoulder and said, "Ok I guess we can go." They made it to the restaurant and sat down to enjoy lunch together. They ate and talked and flirted happily as the time went by. After lunch they went down to the beach and played around in the sun and sand for a few hours. The sun was starting to set and they made their way towards the playhouse.  
Standing in line for tickets they heard a voice scream towards them "Aang what is going on." The two of them turned around and Sokka and Suki came towards them both with a horrified look on their faces. Aang looked at Azula and then at his friends approaching, he swallowed nervously. Aang asked "Sokka what are you doing here?" Sokka and Suki both stopped in front of him both staring at Azula. Sokka said slowly "We were in the Fire Nation due to the rebellion and we heard they made a new play about when I rescued Suki from prison so we thought that we'd come see it." Sokka took a breath and said "Why are you standing next to Azula like everything is fine." Aang said, "Well you saw that your sister and I broke up right, well now Azula is my girlfriend." Sokka just looked back and forth between the two of them for about a minute with a confused look Suki finally broke the silence and asked "So you and Azula, that's interesting how did it happen."

Azula chimed in "Well when I broke out of prison I went to the Southern Air Temple and asked for Aang to forgive me and help me get better. I've been staying with him ever since and I hope eventually maybe the two of you can get over what I've done to you and maybe we could be friends." Sokka kept looking back and forth between the two of them but finally he erupted "So for the past several weeks you were cheating on my sister and lying to all your friends Aang, look what she has turned you into." Azula cut in to defend Aang "Nothing happened between us till two days ago after your sister broke his heart, and he only lied because we knew you would act like this." Sokka said "Aang this is Azula we're talking about you know what she's done." Aang said "Sokka I know that this is hard to believe, it took a while for me too, but Azula has changed, you're my best friend and she's my girlfriend I hope that for me you can just give her a chance."

Sokka's face changed from angry to confused to sad, then back to angry again but then to serious as he turned to Aang and said "I don't like this, but you're right Aang we are best friends and even though I'm not happy that you and my sister broke up I suppose that shouldn't change our relationship." Aang pulled Sokka into a hug and said, "Thanks Sokka, it was bad enough to lose Katatara I don't think I could've handled losing you too." Azula and Suki eyed each other suspiciously as Azula said, "Let's sit together as we take in the show and try to get along." The four of them bought their tickets and took a seat together. They all watched the show Sokka and Suki laughing most of the way through, Sokka kept saying how he loved the guy who played him so much.

The play was finished after several hours and they exited the theatre together. The four of them gathered outside the playhouse to say their farewells. Suki and Sokka both hugged Aang and told him farewell. Azula stood back further away from them Sokka looked over to her and said "Well Azula I guess that this was about the best I could expect an evening out with you to go." He held his hand out and she shook it saying "Thanks Sokka you actually aren't as idiotic and pathetic as these plays would lead one to believe. Suki I'm sorry for capturing and impersonating you in the past I hope eventually we may actually become friends." Suki replied "I hope so too, Azula Aang we'll see you later." The two of them went off and Aang immediately hugged Azula and said "Thanks Azula, I'm so happy you tried to be nice around my friends." Azula sighed and replied, "I'd do anything for you Aang."

He grabbed her hand and said, "Let's get to the beach house." They walked all the way back to the house and Aang ran in and said "I'm gonna go into the backyard and give Appa a treat." She replied, "I'm going to go make us some tea, I'll be inside." She heated some water in a tea pot and mixed some of the flower petals into her cup as she filled it with tea. She took a sip and noticed that the flowers gave the tea a slightly sweeter taste, which was actually enjoyable. Aang had been out in the backyard playing with Appa for about twenty minutes when he came back in. She poured his cup of tea and he sat down at the table and said, "I see you did inherit something from your uncle." She laughed and said, "I suppose maybe I did."

They chatted for about forty minutes over their cups of tea about the play they had watched and Sokka and Suki. They both had two cups of tea and then Azula said seductively "It's so late and we had all this tea, it's going to keep us up all night." She got up from her seat and walked over to Aang trailing her fingers across his arms. She then sat down on his lap and hungrily attacked his lips with hers. They kissed heatedly for about a minute and she pulled out of it and then whispered in his ear "Whatever will we do all night long Avatar." He moaned as he felt her gently nibble on his ear as she finished saying that. She continued "Take me upstairs now avatar, I need you inside of me again. I want to be yours all night long, I want to be yours forever."

Aang needed no further encouragement, he picked her up in his arms, and made his way towards the stairs, there lips never parted. As he carried her she wrapped her legs around him and started to tear open his shirt. He struggled the entire way up the stairs but eventually made it into their room, he dropped her on the bed and fell on top of her, she opened her legs to accept him fully. Aang grabbed the waistband of her pants and started to pull them down. She grabbed his ass and squeezed his cheeks whispering into his ear "Now Aang, I need you now." Their lips met yet again and then their tongues danced passionately. Soon all of their clothing had been discarded as they got lost in the wave of desire that consumed them both.


	16. Chapter 16

Chapter 16 The Dream Campaign Continues

_Aang was standing outside the door to the Dragon Throne in the Firelord's Palace. He had an uneasy feeling that he couldn't quite explain. After standing there for a few minutes a guard came out and said, "Firelord Zuko will see you now." Aang took a step into the room and approached the flames surrounding the throne. When he was close enough to see through the flames he witnessed Katara sitting on the lap of Zuko whispering in his ear. Seeing the two of them together still stung a little, but the recent development of his relationship with Azula significantly lessened the blow. Aang breathed in and said in the loudest most intimidating voice he could muster, "Why have you called me here Zuko." Zuko put on a wide smile and said, "Oh I just thought that being the avatar and all that you would like to know that we've captured the most dangerous criminal in the world my sister Azula." Aang's face turned to horrified as he asked softly, "Where is she, what did you do to her?" Zuko just laughed as he responded "Oh don't worry, the world is safe now I had her executed." Aang felt like he had just been stabbed through the heart with a thousand razor blades as he collapsed to his knees tears forming in his eyes. Katara just laughed at him and said, "Why are you taking this so badly, the world is better off without that evil bitch." Aang blurted out through his sobs, "How could you do this Zuko, she was your sister?" Zuko smirked at him and said, "You can leave now avatar, you are no longer of use to me." Aang screamed "Why would you do all of this to me Zuko, I thought we were friends. First you steal the heart of my first love and then I find someone else and you kill her." Zuko just laughed as he replied, "Friends, hah, we weren't friends. You were just a tool for me to use to become firelord, and now that you've served your purpose I never want to see you in this palace again." Katara chimed in "Yea Aang neither of us want to see you ever again." Aang was grabbed by the arms and dragged out of the throne room and thrown to the ground outside the palace…._

Aang's eyes opened and he felt a great burden lift from his heart when his eyes gazed down to see Azula's beautiful black hair strewn across his chest. He smiled as he realized it was just a dream, his beautiful princess was not dead; she was still here safe in his arms. He bent his head down and kissed the top of her head, taking in the sweet jasmine scent that permeated her hair. He saw from the lack of light that it was likely near dawn and he decided to try and go back to sleep. Sleep overcame him again and the two slept peacefully together for about another two hours.

Ten in the morning came and Aang felt a jolt to his ribs as Azula was poking him saying, "C'mon avatar, get up I want to head into town for breakfast before we take off." Aang hopped up quickly and said, "Whatever you want Azula I live to serve you." She sat up in bed and then kissed him lightly as she said in a playful voice, "That's what I like to hear." Aang went over to the dresser where he had put his change of clothes and started to change into it. He was dressed and ready to go in about two minutes while Azula was still just getting out of bed. He laughed at her and said, "Geez if I had known you were going to take this long I would've stayed in bed for another hour." She gave him a death glare and replied, "To look as good as I do, it takes some work, not all of us are lucky enough to be the bald savior of the world." He came over to her and picked her up as he kissed her, when they broke apart he said, "No matter what you do you'll be the most beautiful girl in the world." She laughed and replied, "As sweet as that is Aang, the rest of the world isn't a love-sick puppy dog like you, so it'll still be a few minutes till I'm ready." He shrugged his shoulders as he walked out of the room and said, "I'll be downstairs whenever you're ready."

He made his way down the stairs and out the back door and saw Appa sleeping happily on the ground. He walked up and rubbed the bison's belly as he said, "Good morning boy, how was your night?" Appa just groaned loudly and Aang replied, "Sounds like mine was better." Aang then laughed to himself. The next twenty or so minutes went by Aang happily playing with Appa when Azula came out of the house dressed in a long fiery red silk dress they had bought yesterday. Aang smiled at her and said, "Wow I'm glad you took so long you look absolutely amazing." She smiled and said, "Yes, Yes, I know, one must look good when they are on the arm of the avatar."

They made their way back into the main marketplace of Ember Island. Aang noticed that the two of them seemed to be drawing even more attention then yesterday. His dream did cause a mild amount of concern for her safety to lurk in the back of his mind, but he was here to protect her and he would never allow anything to happen to her. Plus he was also very proud to have such a beautiful woman on his arm. When Azula had been his enemy he never really had time to consider just how truly stunning she was, not to mention he had been so enamored with Katara at the time he may not have noticed, but now that he was with Azula he felt like the luckiest man alive.

The two of them arrived at the restaurant and were greeted enthusiastically by the staff. They sat down and were handled with the royal treatment as they brought every breakfast plate out for the young couple to enjoy. Azula smiled at him as she said "Being the girlfriend of the avatar has many of the perks of being Fire Princess." Aang smiled and said "The world wants to keep their hero happy, and putting a smile on your face makes me happiest." The two talked and ate as the hour they spent at breakfast flew by.

Aang said as they exited the restaurant, "I thought we could spend the rest of the day on the beach." Azula replied, "Sure just let me head home to change again." The two of them headed back to the Firelord's beach house. Aang stayed out in the yard while Azula went in to change into her bathing suit. They then headed down to the beach hand in hand; still drawing the eyes of every person they passed on their way to the water. Aang stripped down to just his trunks as he screamed, "Watch this Azula." Then he ran into the ocean with his glider staff. He swam out fairly deep and then made a giant wave, which he proceeded to wind surf all the way back towards the shore. Azula lay down on the beach blanket they had brought out and clapped apathetically. She then said, "Very cute avatar, but I need to catch my sun so no more distractions." Aang went off down the beach as Azula stayed on the blanket.

Aang found a bunch of younger boys who were working on a large sand castle. He walked up to them and said, "That looks cool guys, wanna see what I can make." Aang buried his feet in the sand and did a few leg movements then he shoved his hand in the ground. Suddenly a cloud of sand shot in the sky and as it dissipated an exact replica of the Firelord's palace showed up where there had just been a pile of sand a minute ago. All the boys gasped in awe. Aang smiled at them and said, "I can't wait to see what the one you guys make will look like." The oldest boy who looked to be about eleven asked, "Is that girl your girlfriend?" Aang responded, "She sure is." That boy said, "Wow she is really pretty, being the avatar must be awesome." Aang turned his head and looked at Azula and replied, "Sometimes it is."

The next two hours or so Aang ran around playing with a bunch of kids on the beach and in the ocean. When he was tired he came over to the spot where Azula was sunbathing and sat down as he heard her say, "Sometimes you're so much of a little kid it amazes me that you're also the most powerful man in the world." She then sat up and whispered in his ear, "Not to mention the best lover." Aang blushed and pulled her into a deep kiss. They broke apart and Aang felt her tug him up by the hand as she ran towards the water saying, "C'mon avatar I want to see some of your Waterbending skills now." They both ran into the water and Aang tackled her right on the edge of the ocean. He then made a giant vortex of water to swirl around her and then he flung her up in the air. He jumped up in the air and caught her in his arms as he floated down onto the water. She just grunted and said, "That wasn't much, I thought you could do better." He kissed her and said "I'm too distracted when I'm around you I can't concentrate. That's the only reason you beat me when we duel." She laughed at him and said "Likely excuse." He smiled and then leaned in to kiss her, but she turned her head away. He frowned and said, "Hey what was that about." She just looked off in the distance and said, "No more anything for you till you admit that it is my Firebending skills and not my looks that beat you." He laughed as he dropped her into the water and said, "Haha, I don't think you can go that long without some avatar loving." She got up out of the water and headed back towards the beach and said, "Let's head back to the temple, once we're alone we'll see how long you can last."

Aang followed her obediently and they made their way back towards the beach house. They got to the beach house and packed up there belongings and went into the backyard to hop on Appa. Aang said "Yip, Yip" and the two of them soared into the sky on the back of the bison.

The trip back to the temple took the rest of the day and most of the evening. They got back home and Azula hopped down and made her way to Aang's room and plopped down in the bed. He followed several steps behind her and when he entered his room and saw Azula lying in his bed he smirked and said, "I knew you weren't going to be able to resist my charms." She laughed confidently at him as she said, "I don't know what you think is going to happen, but I'm just here to sleep." He stripped down to just his boxers and fell next to her on the bed and said "OK will do, I'm tired anyway." She turned her back on him and in about a minute he wrapped his arm around her waist as he whispered in her ear, "Thanks for the past few days Azula, you make me feel great, I love you." She laughed at him and said, "You're still not getting any till you admit I can beat you." He squeezed her and said, "I only need you in my arms, we can figure out who wins in a battle tomorrow." Azula sighed and said; "I guess maybe I can give you some sympathy after I kick your ass again tomorrow." He smiled and closed his eyes as he let sleep overtake him.

_Aang was once again standing outside of the doors to the Dragon Throne in the Firelord's Palace. The royal guard opened the door and said "Avatar hello, the Firelord will see you now." He walked in readying himself for another confrontation with Zuko. This time when he approached the flames he saw that behind them was not Zuko but Azula. She smiled at him and said, "Aang it's so wonderful to see you again husband." He saw her stand up and walk over to him. He noticed that she had a large bump in her belly. She_ _approached him and wrapped her arms around his neck, then kissed him deeply. She pulled back and smiled at him saying, "I always miss you when you travel the world on avatar duties." She then took his hand and put it on her belly as he felt a little push underneath it. She looked deep into his eyes and said, "She knows when daddy comes home, it always makes her so happy, our little airbender." Aang wrapped his fingers around hers and looked deep into her golden eyes and saw just how happy she was, it was the most beautiful thing he had ever seen. He leaned in to kiss her again and she passionately returned his kiss. As they finished kissing he whispered in her ear, "I love you so much." She giggled and whispered back, "I know you do, but still not as much as I love you." They locked eyes, and slowly descended into another kiss…_

Aang's eyes opened and he felt the heat of Azula pressed into his body as his arm was wrapped around her. He saw it was still dark out and smiled to himself as he closed his eyes to sleep again wishing that all of his dreams were as happy and perfect as the one he just had.


	17. Chapter 17

Chapter 17 The Wrath Of The Fire Nation

AN: Thanks for all the reviews and feedback; I love to hear your thoughts. I was originally going to make this story a much longer one but I decided that I'm going to end it in a few more chapters. Don't worry if you're a fan though because I already have a plan for the sequel (In fact I have ideas for the first few chapters swimming around in my head, I just have to finish this story.) Anyway I'd love to hear more from all my readers even the haters and I hope you enjoy.

Azula woke up and noticed that Aang had already gotten up. She rolled out of bed and made her way to her room to change into one of her older outfits. When she dueled Aang today she was sure that it would get a little messy so it was best to not wear one of her new outfits. She got to her room and stripped down and threw on one of the Air Nomad robes that Aang had given her to wear. She left her room and headed down towards the courtyard to see what Aang was up to. She walked out into the sunlight and saw Aang sitting cross-legged on the edge of the courtyard.

She noticed that he had laid out a simple breakfast consisting of a fruit salad and some muffins. She approached and sat down next to the food and read the note that was attached to the basket.

_Azula,_

_I made breakfast for us I hope you enjoy._

_You've been distracting me from my meditating _

_So I decided to take some time to myself this_

_Morning, once I've finished we can spar some._

_Love,_

_Aang_

Azula took a bite out of an apple muffin that was in front of her. She relaxed as the breeze blew through her hair, she was really starting to enjoy the peace and tranquility her life of seclusion at this temple provided. Soon she hoped that her days hiding away here would be over, but she would make the most of what time was left. She looked over at Aang meditating off in the distance and smiled. When she first came here she was unsure of how she would feel about the avatar after spending so much time with him, but found that she was actually glad to be his girlfriend. She was surprised by how much she enjoyed being with him and it made her proud that her plan was coming together perfectly.

She wasn't quite sure how long it would take for Aang to turn totally against her brother, but was confident that he was moving closer and closer to that inevitability everyday. She would just keep pelting his subconscious with dreams about how happy they would be as the royal family, and how much Zuko could not be trusted. She noticed Aang get up from his meditation and walk over towards her smiling as he said, "Morning Beautiful." She replied, "How was your morning? Did you cleanse your spirits?" He nodded and replied; "Now I'm all ready to take you down." She just laughed and tossed him a muffin. He caught it and took a bite out of it as he sat down next to her.

The two of them chatted and ate the rest of the food as the remainder of the morning flew by. The sun was high in the sky as Aang pointed towards the horizon and asked, "What are those?" She looked in the direction he was pointing and saw a few black dots. She noticed over the next few minutes that the dots appeared to be getting larger and larger. Aang kept staring off in that direction and then said, "I think those are Zeppelins." She looked again and it appeared that he was right, there were 4 Fire Nation war zeppelins approaching. He looked over at her with a puzzled expression, which soon changed to a fearful one. He then said, "Oh no, are they coming for you."

She looked over to him and said, "That would seem likely, we both knew that people recognized us together on Ember Island." He said, "Don't worry Azula I won't let anything happen to you." She smiled at him and replied; "I know you won't."

Aang started to pace back and forth seeming very nervous as the Zeppelins slowly made their way towards the temple. Azula sat down on the steps to the temple. She was surprised that her brother would take such an aggressive step as to send a large force to arrest her at the temple. He must really be freaking out to risk alienating himself further from Aang. She felt a nervous energy building inside of her. When she had openly paraded around Ember Island with the avatar this was exactly the sort of response she had hoped to coax out of her brother. Now as the arresting force approached she knew that what was about to play out would determine her fate.

Aang stopped pacing and turned to her saying, "Stay back please Azula, I will handle this." She stood up and said, "Aang I don't need you to protect me I can take care of myself." He came up to her and pulled her into a hug. He squeezed her tight for about a minute, then pulled back and locked eyes with her. He held her gaze intensely and finally broke the silence by saying; "Azula I know you are strong and can take care of yourself, but I promised that I would not allow anything to happen to you and I intend to fulfill that now." She was about to open her mouth to protest, but Aang leaned in and kissed her ferociously and passionately. There lips broke apart and he put his hand on her cheek and stroked it as he said, "I love you so much, it will all be fine, I promise."

She sat back down on the temple stairs; it was moments like this that she knew that Aang was the only man in the world she could ever be with. Sometimes he acted childish and immature but when it mattered he exuded confidence and power that she couldn't help but be attracted to. She smiled as he stepped out into the courtyard ready to face an army of firebenders to protect her. The minutes passed in silence as he stood there out in the open watching as the zeppelins approached the temple and finally landed down on the mountain below the temple.

After several minutes she watched as Zuko came marching up the stairs in front of a legion of firebenders. Aang stepped up and said in a loud confident voice, "What are you doing here Zuko." Zuko stopped about ten feet from Aang and put his hand up to stop all of his soldiers. He looked at Azula then at Aang as he said, "You know why I am here Aang, you are harboring the most wanted criminal in the world and I am here to arrest her." Aang said, "You know what atrocities your forefathers committed in this temple and you dare bring a Fire Nation army to my home and threaten me." Zuko said, "Aang we have no quarrel with you, I'm just here for my sister, I don't want to fight you." Aang responded angrily, "This is Azula's home now, one hundred years ago I was not here to protect my people when the Fire Nation came. This time I will stop you."

Zuko decided to change tactics as his voice turned to a pleading tone, "Aang please, this is Azula she is evil. Whatever she has told you, whatever you think is between you is a lie. Azula always lies." Aang laughed as he retorted, "Oh and I'm supposed to trust you Zuko, name one person you haven't stabbed in the back. Oh that's right you can't. How many times did you betray your beloved uncle?" Zuko replied; "Aang don't do this, she is tricking you, let me take her back with me I promise I will not hurt her, but she's too dangerous to be free." Aang replied, "I can not do that, I promised to protect her and I will, now leave this temple Zuko."

Zuko motioned his hand forwards as he said; "I'm not leaving without Azula in custody. So step aside avatar." The army of firebeners Zuko brought with him started to move towards the temple doors where Azula was sitting. Aang stepped forward saying, "You are making a mistake Zuko, and this is your last chance to leave peacefully." Zuko stepped forward and shouted towards Azula; "Surrender now Azula, it is no use" suddenly he was blasted back by a gust of wind. Aang started to float in the air a bright blue glow starting to show in his tattoos and eyes as his voice changed to a much deeper tone as it embodied the voice of all the avatars past; "I warned you Zuko, The Fire Nation has desecrated this temple with it's hate before, but this time I am here and I will stop you." Zuko was engulfed by a ball of air and spun in the air, then each and every one of the firebenders was also picked up in a globe of air and blasted back down the mountain.

Azula watched in awe as the avatar flew higher and higher in the air lifting the wind prison that contained her brother along with him. Aang commanded in his avatar state voice, "Now you will leave Zuko and never come back here! This is me telling you nicely. The next time the penalty I lay down will be much more severe. Take your Zeppelins and go." He shot the globe of air all the way back down the mountain to join his soldiers. Aang then slowly descended and landed on his feet.

Azula walked over and said, "Wow Aang that was impressive." Aang turned to her and smiled as he said, "No one comes for my princess, I told you I would handle it." She nodded and said, "Maybe there is some truth to me distracting you from giving your best in battle. I'm not sure I could take down Avatar State Aang." He kissed her on the lips and said, "Don't worry I'll never need to use it against you, besides it kinda turns me on when you beat on me." She laughed as she replied, "I could always tell."

Azula saw the Zeppelins take to the sky as her brother ran away tail tucked between his legs. Once again she was delighted at how everything was working in her favor. Zuko's ill-advised and pathetic act of aggression should only hasten Aang's decision to oust her brother and instate her as Firelord. She looked deep into Aang's stormy gray eyes and smiled at him as she thought about how she loved to have this power over the avatar, and how she also was starting to really love the young man who was the avatar. Azula took Aang's hand and kissed him greedily. Pulling back she nibbled lightly on his ear as she whispered seductively in his ear; "Now let your princess reward you for your bravery." She then tugged him by the hand as she led him into the temple towards their bed.


	18. Chapter 18

Chapter 18 Morning Tea

_Aang stood at the front of the Dragon Throne dressed in ceremonial Royal Fire Nation armor. He looked straight ahead and saw the head fire sage standing a few steps up from him. He turned back and gazed upon a room full of people standing in attention as a wedding march started to play. He felt a punch in his arm and turned to see Sokka grinning at him saying; "I can't believe you're actually doing this, Firelady Aang." Aang was puzzled, but then as he saw Azula, dressed in a fiery red wedding gown looking absolutely stunning, making her way through the group of people towards him holding a bouquet of fire lilies, his brain pieced it together. A giant beaming smile spread across his face as he realized he was getting married today, married to Azula. Her beautiful golden eyes captured his and he felt his heart beat like crazy as she flashed him a gorgeous smile and blushed a little. He held his hand out as she approached and she took it as she stepped up next to him on the dragon throne. He squeezed her hand lovingly and their eyes once again locked. He could hear the fire sage saying something but his mind couldn't comprehend It, as he was lost, adrift in the amber ocean of Azula's mesmerizing gaze. She shook his arm and made a motion with her head towards the sage, suddenly he heard the sage say, "Avatar Aang do you take FireLord Azula to be your wife?" He smiled as he replied, "Of course I do" The sage responded; "You may now kiss the bride." Aang leaned in and captured the lips of his now wife in the most passionate kiss he had ever experienced…._

Aang woke up and felt the warmth of Azula next to him, he had fallen asleep with his arms wrapped around her. He smiled to himself as he breathed in deep the jasmine scent of her hair. He pulled his arm out from under her very carefully so as not to wake her, then he got out of bed and put on his pants. He made his way out into the courtyard and he saw there was a messenger hawk waiting for him. He gently patted it's head and pulled the scroll out of it's tube. He unfurled it and perused the contents. It was a message from Iroh that said that he wanted to have a meeting alone with Aang soon, and that he personally would guarantee that no Fire Nation soldiers would come for Azula while Aang was gone.

Aang sighed as he knew what this was going to be about. Iroh was going to warn him about how manipulative and dangerous Azula could be. He figured that he would head to this meeting anyway. If he wanted to turn the world's attitude towards Azula around, he needed to make a concerted effort to show them all how much faith he has in the new Azula. He scribbled a quick response and put it into the tube and sent the hawk flying back off.

He started to get breakfast ready and in a few minutes Azula made her way out and wrapped her arms around Aang's waist. He felt her kiss the back of his neck and he laughed, "I guess you missed me." She laughed back and said, "Aren't you a little full of yourself." He turned around and kissed her quickly. Then he said, "Breakfast is just about ready." The two of them sat down and enjoyed their meal.

Eventually Aang brought up the letter that her uncle had sent him. Azula said, "Oh that's funny, I imagine Zuzu went and told him about us. I'm sure he's going to tell you about how dangerous I am and how much you should avoid me." Aang looked at her intently and then said, "That's what I thought too, but I think I should go see him anyway. I mean if we're going to get you back out into the world we have got to start somewhere." She shrugged and replied; "Whatever you think is best, you are the avatar after all." He grinned back at her as he replied; "You're not worried that your uncle can change my mind about you, are you?" She smirked at him and said, "Haha, not at all, I know that you are fully under my spell." She leaned in to kiss him, and he happily accepted her lips. He then said, "I figure that I'll head to your uncle's shop tonight, I already sent him a response." They spent the rest of the morning with a sparring session between them, Azula made quick work of him.

The late afternoon came and then Aang took off on Appa, headed towards Ba Sing Se and Iroh's teashop. The flight seemed longer than usual as he gazed into the night sky. He realized that as silly as it was he was missing Azula. It was only a few hours but he knew that this would be the first night in a while he would spend away from Azula. The worst thing was that not only would he be away from her, but it was to hear about how much of a mistake he was making by being with her. Eventually he dozed off thinking about how much happier he would be if all of his friends would accept him and Azula as a couple.

Appa touched down in the backyard and groaned to alert Aang that they had reached his house in the Earth Kingdom capitol. Aang woke up and slipped down off of the back of his sky bison and headed into his house to find his bed. He hoped that more of his pleasant dreams of Azula would invade his thoughts before he had to deal with the negative energy he would face in the morning. He got to his room and plopped down on the bed stripping down to his boxers as he pulled the sheet up over him and let sleep once again wash over him.

The morning came and he got up out of bed and grabbed a simple set of green Earth Kingdom robes and a large green hat to cover his arrow tattoos, he didn't really feel like being recognized as the avatar today. Once he was dressed he made his way towards Iroh's shop the Jasmine Dragon. It was a beautiful morning and Aang found himself whistling through the streets as his mind was awash with thoughts of his beautiful girlfriend. He approached the entrance to the Jasmine Dragon and took his hat off and said to the hostess as he walked in; "Hey I'm Aang, Iroh is expecting me." She bowed and then said, "Of course avatar." Aang then heard in a familiar voice; "Hello Twinkle Toes."

He looked over and saw Toph sitting in the corner near the entrance with her feet propped up on the table. Aang made his way over to Toph's table and asked, "Hey Toph what are you doing here?" She laughed and replied, "Oh I just heard about you coming to visit and I wanted to be here to hear Iroh tell you off for dating his niece." Aang sat down at her table and said, "So you heard, huh?" Her expression turned a little sadder and softer as she said, "Yea I'm really sorry about what happened with Katara, but are you sure about Azula. I mean I guess she didn't seem as evil when I was at the temple with you, but still." Aang just smiled and replied, "Yea I am sure Toph. I was really hurt when I saw Katara with Zuko, but these past few days with Azula have made me forget about all the pain and made me really happy." Toph punched him in the arm and laughed in response saying, "Oh well, I still may think you're crazy but if you're happy good for you baldie."

Iroh shuffled his way over and bowed his head as he approached Aang. He said, "Hello Avatar, thank you for agreeing to meet with me so quickly." Then Iroh sat down at the table with Aang and Toph. Aang turned to Iroh and said, "It doesn't take too much to convince me to come and enjoy the greatest tea in the world." Iroh laughed and said, "Why thank you. You humble me avatar. Now Aang I'm pretty sure you know why I've asked you here." Aang's happy expression turned to a more somber one as he replied, "I guess you want to talk about Azula." Iroh nodded and said, "I'm not sure what is going on with you and my niece, but I can't stress enough how much you can't trust her or anything she tells you."

Aang just shook his head as his look hardened, Iroh continued; "Zuko told me that you have been harboring her for as long as she's been gone and that you attacked him when he came to arrest her." Aang laughed and said, "I'm sorry Iroh, but I can't take anything you say seriously. You have given so many chances to Zuko and not once have I ever heard anything but contempt and mistrust in your voice towards Azula." Iroh was about to speak up in protest but Aang cut him off his voice rising in anger; "Azula made many mistakes in her past and seeing the way her own family treated her it's not surprising. You who have so much love and forgiveness for that piece of shit Zuko can't even give Azula, beautiful and loving Azula, a first chance." Aang got up from the table now nearly shouting at Iroh; "I'll excuse myself now Iroh, don't call on me again until you're willing to give Azula a chance. I love your niece and I feel sorry that you don't see the beautiful princess that I do, you're too blinded by the façade that Zuko puts up to see who really deserves to be forgiven and loved. No matter how many times you give Zuko a chance he's always going to stab you in the back. Now thank you for the tea and goodbye." With that Aang turned his back on Iroh and stormed out of The Jasmine Dragon.

Aang was stomping down the streets of Ba Sing Se, he was surprised at how strongly he reacted to what Iroh said. Walking into the tea shop he was fully prepared to hear those words from Iroh, but once they actually came out it just made him so angry. He loved Azula so much and he just couldn't understand how her own uncle could be so against her and so supportive of Zuko. He had once forgiven and trusted Zuko, but now Aang realized that Zuko was just a pathetic lost little boy. He never would be satisfied with anything. Whenever Zuko got what he wanted he would immediately need something else.

Aang hated that the world looked at Zuko as some sort of hero and his sister as a deranged criminal. Aang heard from behind him Toph's voice calling out. He stopped and turned back as she ran up and said, "Wow Aang I've never seen you get so mad. You must really have it bad." Aang shrugged and started to walk off again saying as he walked, "It's just frustrating that no one will give her a chance. She really has changed and all anyone will ever do is say how dangerous she is and how lucky we all are to have Zuko as the firelord." Toph just said in a calm voice; "Don't worry Aang, you're the avatar if you have so much faith in her I'm sure the world will come around too." Aang turned to her and said, "Thanks Toph, I'm glad at least one of my friends supports me." She punched him in the arm and said, "Well twinkle toes you are my first real friend, so I'll always be with you no matter what crazy path that arrow covered bald head of yours takes you down." Aang laughed as the two of them walked to the house the whole gang shared.

When they reached the house Toph bid Aang farewell as she was heading back to her hometown, she hated to spend too long in Ba Sing Se. Aang went into the house and headed for the backyard where he found Appa sleeping peacefully. Aang figured he would let the bison sleep for as long as he needed seeing as he had flown through the night. Aang flew up to the roof of the house and sat up on it thinking to himself. He looked forward to the day when he wouldn't have to hide his love away at the abandoned air temple. He wished that she could travel the world with him and not be shunned as a deranged criminal. Though they had only been a couple for a short time, the intensity they had shared in that time made Aang certain that he needed her. Though he had been in love with Katara for two years, he realized now that had been a naïve young boys love. The passion he felt with Azula was nothing like those two years with Katara. He would be away from Katara for weeks, and yes he would miss her, but not like this, his body literally ached for the touch of Azula.

He leaned back on the roof and let the sun's light wash over him. He thought about how shocked he would be at his life if his past self from just five months ago looked at him now. He thought about how many interesting and unique stories all the past avatars had, and how this crazy tail of falling so hard for your greatest enemy would compare to them. The faces of Avatar Roku and Kiyoshi swam through his mind as he drifted into a pleasant mid-day nap.


	19. Chapter 19

Chapter 19 An Empty Bed

AN: Hello all, sorry about the delay in my posting this chapter but I've been busier than usual this is the longest it's taken me to update since I started writing fan fiction. If you also read my other stories I've been kinda blocked on them plus my more hectic schedule recently has given me less time to write, but I will get back to them eventually. As I've said before this story is coming to it's end but I will continue the romance between Aang and Azula that started in this fic with a sequel I will post shortly after I finish this one. Thanks everyone for reading my stories and I hope you are enjoying them. As always I'd love to hear any thoughts you have on my story. A new review always puts a smile on my face, especially when it's positive.

_Azula was sitting by the turtleduck pond in the courtyard of the Firelord's Palace. She saw the little baby ducklings swimming by as she heard someone approach her from behind. She turned to see her mother approaching her. Azula said, "Mother what are you doing here?" Her mother replied, "It's very important that you come with me to the throne room, your father needs to see you." Azula stood up as her mother turned back towards the palace and started walking very quickly towards it. She ran to catch up with her mother and finally caught up to her by the doors to the throne room. Ursa turned to her and said, "Don't worry about what he says to you Azula, I'll always love you no matter what." Finishing that statement Ursa pulled Azula into a hug and squeezed her tight. The doors swung open and her mother turned away and walked off into the distance. Azula stepped through the giant chamber doors and started to make her way towards her father who was sitting on the Dragon Throne. She noticed that he was sitting dejectedly, and also that there were no flames anywhere in the room. As she approached him she heard his voice say, "Azula how could you do this to me, you were always my favorite. You were the chosen one, I made you Firelord, and now you've let your pathetic brother rule and disgrace our family with his weakness. I'm sitting here and I can't even firebend, and now you have taken your betrayal to the ultimate level by giving yourself to our greatest enemy The Avatar." Azula was about to respond when she heard her mother's voice burst out angrily from behind her, "Silence Ozai. Your days of tyranny are over. You are weak and powerless now and your children will lead this family to far greater heights than you ever could." Azula blinked and suddenly she was transported to the royal prison and saw her father behind bars. Her mother took her hand and said to Azula; "Let's leave him sweetheart, you have a new man now let's go see Aang." Azula let her mother lead her out as she heard her father screaming in anger at them, "I will never forgive you…."_

Azula sprung awake from her dream. She felt the morning breeze blow through the window of Aang's room, where she now slept every night, even nights like last night when Aang was away from the temple. She got out of bed and through on a silk robe over her nightgown since the morning was a chilly one. She grabbed a towel and some bathing supplies as she left the room. She thought about Aang, wondering how his meeting with her uncle went. She knew that Iroh would warn Aang about her ulterior motives, she laughed to herself, thinking that what most of her uncle was going to say would be true, but she was certain that Aang's ears would be deaf to his concerns.

She made her way down to the courtyard and went to take a bath in the spring. She grabbed an apple to eat a light breakfast before her bath. She stripped down out of her clothes and then lowered herself into the spring. The water ran over her as she scrubbed herself clean. She then lowered her long hair into the water applying the jasmine smelling shampoo that Aang got for her. Once she cleaned herself, she lay back in the water and started to relax.

Thirty minutes went by Azula sitting calmly in the water basking in the bright sunshine of the morning. She eventually got out of the water and dried herself off, than made her way back towards the room she shared with The Avatar. She put on some fresh clothes including a female set of air nomad robes Aang had gotten for her. Walking down the stairs she went towards the roost that she had set up for her messenger hawks. She was very pleased with the way her plans was unfolding up to this point. She wasn't sure when Aang was going to make her Firelord, but she knew that day was fast approaching.

The hardest part of the plan was going to be once she became Firelord. No matter how enthralled Aang was with her, she knew that he wasn't going to let her just attack the rest of the world. When she first formulated this plan she figured that she would eventually cast Aang aside and take the world by storm. Now as much as part of her hated it, the other part had grown quite attached to the young bald monk. She wanted to rule the world, but she wanted to rule with The Avatar on her arm.

She got to the hawks and scribbled down a message to her contacts in the Earth Kingdom. The newest part of the plan that she was starting to enact was to spread rumors throughout the Earth Kingdom of her soon becoming The Firelord. Along with these rumors she was also having her agents let it be known that when she came to power she would start the war all over again. She hoped that putting out that message aggressively would force her enemies to take a pre-emptive action against The Fire Nation when she usurped her brother. The best way to start the war anew and keep The Avatar on her side would be to make the rest of the world attack her. She hoped that eventually the stress of being with the enemy of the world would get to Aang and make him more malleable to her dreams of conquest.

Azula finished writing the messages she was to send out to various contacts throughout The Earth Kingdom and then put them in the hawk's tube. She gave the three birds their instructions and sent them on their way. She went back up towards the temple thinking fondly of being a member of the royal family again. She really missed the amenities of the Fire Palace, and was more than ready for her return to power.

The rest of the day went by uneventfully. Azula did her usual routine of going through her firebending forms. She executed them perfectly, Lo and Li would have been proud. She ate a light lunch, consisting mostly of an authentic Air Nomad fruit pie that Aang had become very good at making. She smiled to herself as she ate, she really enjoyed the way that Aang took care of her, he cooked for her and always tried his best to make sure that she felt safe and happy and at home in the temple. People had fussed over her before, but that was always out of obligation and duty to her royal status. Aang did it out of love and devotion to her as a woman and a person, not as a princess. She always was confident in herself but holding such a powerful sway over The Avatar reaffirmed her belief in the beauty and majesty that she projected more than anything had in the past.

Finishing her dinner she made her way back into the temple. She went to the room she shared with Aang and climbed into bed lighting a candle and grabbing a book that she had been reading on the history of the Air Nomads. She never read much growing up but she had picked up the habit with all the free time she had in this temple.

Several hours passed as Azula learned about the way of the people her forefathers had eradicated. Air Nomads were such a strange culture to Azula. Their history books were full of strange anecdotes and what seemed like mostly tall tales. Coming from The Fire Nation all of her history lessons had always been about national pride and conquest, this text was mostly frivolous and comical. She laughed, the books were kind of like Aang and herself. She was driven and determined, her mind set on conquest. Aang was carefree and light, totally giving himself over to the whimsy of their newly formed relationship. Somehow though they seemed perfect for each other. Azula for her entire life thought that power and strength came from fear and intimidation. Aang was different in every way from her, and yet he was the most powerful man in the world just like she was the ultimate woman. Now they were together, the greatest couple the world had ever known, and soon they would rule it together.

She put the book down and changed into one of her nightgowns. She crawled under the covers and extinguished the candles. She was disappointed that Aang did not return, sleeping alone just didn't feel right anymore, she missed the warmth of her little tattooed monk holding her in his arms as they fell asleep together. She snuggled into the covers as she closed her eyes and let pleasant thoughts of being nestled in the red satin sheets of the Firelord's giant bed in the royal palace. Sleep overtook her as she pictured herself laying there, just the princess and her little airbender.


	20. Chapter 20

Chapter 20 The Greatest Gift

Aang was finishing his lunch in his house in Ba Sing Se. He had let Appa sleep for most of the day and now as late afternoon was approaching he was getting ready to head back to his true home at the Southern Air Temple with his girlfriend Azula. While he was putting the dishes he had used away he heard a knock at the front door. Aang wasn't sure who knew he was here, so he figured it must be Toph checking to see if he was still here. He walked towards the door and opened it, surprised to see Katara standing there, Momo sitting on her shoulder.

Katara said, "Hello Aang, please can I come in." Aang stepped back and motioned Katara to come in. As Katara moved through the door past Aang, Momo jumped from her shoulder to his head. Katara said, "I heard you were in town and I thought I'd drop Momo by, he's been missing you." Momo plopped down on Aang's head, Aang rubbed his ear and smiled saying; "Is that true buddy, did you miss me?" Momo just made some sort of chirping sound and nodded. Katara smiled at him and locked her ocean blue eyes on Aang's and said, "You know Aang he's not the only one who misses you."

Katara took a step towards Aang and he backed up saying; "Katara, don't." She stopped but kept her gaze intently on him. She said, "Aang I know what happened hurt you, but you never let me explain." Aang snorted and replied, "My eyes saw all the explanation I needed." Katara started to tear up and she said meekly, "Aang, I swear I don't know how or why you saw what you saw. I would never betray you, I love you so much. You're the only man I ever want or wanted to be with." Aang saw the hurt pleading look in her tear soaked eyes, he also saw a desperate longing, a longing for him. He looked down as she continued, "Look at me Aang, look at me and tell me you don't love me anymore." Aang turned away and said, "Katara I told you I didn't want to see you, now please leave."

She shouted back; "No Aang I won't leave, I won't let you ignore me like this. It's our destiny to be together, that's why it was me who saved you from that iceberg, that's why it was me who you kissed on that submarine when you thought you might die." She grabbed Aang's hand and spun him around. She put her hand on his cheek and turned his head to line up with hers. Aang's eyes met the vast blueness of hers and he saw her smile, the bright beautiful smile that he fell in love with. She said, "Aang I know we've had our problems, I know that you've been with someone else. But I still love you and I know that you love me, we can go back to the way it was, you forgive and forget, I'll forgive and forget, and we'll be in love again, be the couple that we were always meant to be, I'll be your forever girl again."

She leaned in and kissed him, Aang felt her lips meet his, felt them open and her tongue start to move towards his. His mind suddenly kicked in and told him this was wrong. He pulled back saying; "No Katara, we can't do this, we're not together anymore, I'm with Azula." Katara looked angry as she said, "Why Aang, why are you with her. She is an evil bitch, you're supposed to be with me." Aang shouted back, "She's not evil, and she's also my girlfriend. You hurt me Katara, but I've moved on and I'm with Azula now, she makes me happy." Katara said, "Aang please just don't go back to her, let's work this out I'm sure we can."

Aang replied, "I'm sorry Katara, but I love Azula, it's not just a short term thing. I want to be with her forever, I hope that someday you and I can be friends again but Azula is the only girl I want to be with."

Katara dropped to her knees crying as Aang turned away and said, "Goodbye Katara." Aang, with Momo looking puzzled on his head, left the house and ran over to Appa. He hopped on top of the sky bison as Momo flew in front of Appa and said his helloes. Aang said, "Let's go buddy, Yip Yip." Momo flew back up into the saddle and settled as Appa took off into the sky.

Aang was upset about what had just transpired. Now that time had passed and he was happy being with Azula his anger at Katara had faded. The last two times seeing her crying and upset was easier because he was mad at her, but now he just felt bad for his friend. It seemed like she was genuinely upset about what happened between them and she also seemed honestly confused about what happened that night with Zuko.

It was so strange how much Aang had changed in the past months. He would never have believed that he could turn his back on a pleading Katara, his first love, the girl he saved the world for, but he did. The last encounter had really cemented in his brain that Katara and he were done for good as a couple. When she kissed him the spark that was there had turned into nothing. Kissing Katara only made him miss Azula even more. He needed to get back to Azula, he needed to come clean to her about what had happened, and he never wanted to hold anything back from her.

Aang looked at the setting sun, the amber color reminding him of the entrancing eyes of his Princess. His mind was flooded with memories of all the great times they had together. He smiled as he remembered the dream he had when they got married in the Firelord's Palace. His mind next went to the dream when Azula was pregnant and they were a happy couple as the royal family. Aang smiled, he looked forward to the day when this was a reality. Suddenly the question popped into his head, "Why wait?"

He was now surer then ever that Katara was his past and Azula was his present, his future, his everything. He was going to ask her to marry him. He knew that this was a huge step and he was still a very young man but he was sure that he wanted to be with Azula. He told Appa to head to Caldera, the Fire Nation Capitol, he was going to get her an engagement ring. He was filled with excitement and nervousness. He really wanted to be with her, and expose her to the world again not as a fugitive anymore, but as the wife of the avatar. A part of him was scared that this was all happening fast and that she might turn him down, but he just had to trust in love and believe that she felt as strongly about him as he did for her.

Getting the engagement ring would be the easiest part of this whole process. He was unsure of how he was going to ask her, and he still had to tell her about kissing Katara, he hoped she wouldn't get too mad. He hoped that what he planned on doing for her as his first present for his new fiancé would smooth out some of the edges, he was going to support her bid to become the next Firelord. He had been thinking about this ever since Zuko attacked them at the temple. He once thought that Zuko was his friend and he could trust him, but his actions recently convinced Aang that Zuko was nothing more then the unsatisfied, unhappy, and treacherous boy he had always seemed to be. The most unsettling thing was if Aang believed Katara about their affair, Zuko had manipulated or taken advantage of her and that was unforgivable. Aang could no longer support Zuko and as much as she tried to hide it from him he knew Azula still was boiling inside with her ambition to be Firelord.

It did hurt Aang a little that Azula felt that she had to hide her ambition from him, but he knew that she really struggled with trust. She was afraid that he might think she was falling to her old ways if he found out that she still had desire for power. She felt vulnerable because Aang had become such a large part of her life, so he had noticed that at times she acted like she thought he wanted her to act and would suppress her true fiery nature. He loves her at all times, even when she was trying to be the girl she thinks he wants, but what he really loves is when the intense, fiery, passionate side of her shines through, like when they battle and especially when they make love. He always wants to make her happy and he knows that what she wants more than anything is to be The Firelord, so he would bring her to the palace and if his understanding of Fire Nation Succession rules were correct, when she beat her brother in an Agni Kai she would take over as the new Firelord. Then his dreams of getting married in the royal palace and living as the royal family would come true. Being a member of Fire Nation royalty didn't matter at all to Aang, but he knew it's the only way Azula would ever be fully satisfied and happy.

The rest of the night went by with Aang planning out conversations with Azula once he got back to the temple. He was trying to decide how to best approach revealing his minor slip up with Katara, and then transition into a marriage proposal. Aang was worried, he was never the best with words and he knew there was a great risk of freezing up in front of Azula. Hours went by, countless scenarios playing out in Aang's head till eventually he fell asleep. Appa kept flying through the night and in the late morning they reached Caldera.

Appa landed near the fire palace and gave his customary groan to alert Aang to wake up because they had reached the destination. Aang stretched as he hopped down from the saddle and let out a big yawn. He turned to Appa and said, "You can go for a quick nap boy, but we're going to take off soon." Aang made his way through the streets of the palace city towards the royal jewelers. He knew where it was because he had once bought a bracelet for Katara there.

He saw the door and walked in. The proprietor saw him and said, "Hello young avatar, what can I do for you this morning." Aang looked down sheepishly and said, "Uhm I'd like to buy a very traditional Royal Family engagement ring." The shop owner asked, "Engagement ring?" Aang nodded and said, "Yes sir." The man smiled and said, "Congratulations, who is the lucky young lady, wait could it be, I heard rumors that you were with our Princess is that who it's for." Aang smiled and replied, "Yup, it's for Azula." The shop owner clapped excitedly and said, "Well avatar I have just the thing." With that he turned and went into the back of his shop and was gone for a few minutes. He came back out carrying a glass case that had a pillow in it and sitting on that pillow was a beautiful golden ring with a giant ruby cut to look like a flame.

The shopkeeper set it down and said, "This is a very special ring, it is not only an heirloom of the royal family, but it also relates to the avatar cycle. This is the ring that Avatar Roku used to propose." Aang smiled, the ring was perfect that was just what he needed. He said, "Thank you sir it's perfect, how much." The older man smiled and said, "Nothing for you avatar, it once belonged to you and I am just glad to return it to the avatar, just let me take it back and size it for our princess, I know her sizes because she often shopped here before she was sent into exile."

Aang sat in the jeweler's for about an hour as he went back and fixed the ring. He saw the man come out with a purple velvet box and say, "Here you go avatar it is all ready, I'm glad that you will be joining the Royal Family." He bowed and handed the box to Aang. Aang took it and bowed back saying, "Thank you sir, now I just hope she says yes." The old man laughed and said, "Of course she will say yes, Fire Princess Azula and Avatar Aang will be the greatest couple the world has ever known." Aang thanked him again as he exited the shop and made his way back towards Appa. He found Appa sleeping in the stables he usually stayed at so Aang decided to go get lunch while he let Appa get a little more sleep. After enjoying some Fire Nation delicacies he woke up Appa and Momo and the three of them were off to there home at The Southern Air Temple.

The trip took the rest of the day and it was a few hours before midnight when Aang saw the mountains approaching that indicated he was a few minutes from the temple. He started to get really nervous, he had never been so afraid of Azula, even when she was trying to kill him and mostly succeeding.

Appa landed in the courtyard and Momo flew off into the night sky as Aang slid down Appa's tail. Once Aang landed on the ground Appa yawned very loudly and slumped off towards his room for some much needed sleep. Aang walked towards the temple door and opened it. He took in a deep breath as he tried to mentally prep himself for the massive task that lay ahead of him. He laughed thinking about how he was pretty sure he was way more calmed and relaxed as he watched the Firelord's airship armada approach him. He'd give anything to be stepping into a battle rather than asking the woman he loved to marry him.

Finally he took a step into the temple and started his trek up the stairs. He took every step one at a time, still very nervous about what he was about to do. The door to his room made its way into his field of vision, he could see a flickering light, which must mean that Azula was up and reading. Aang walked into the doorway and saw her laying in his bed in a gold silk nightie reading a book.

Aang said, "Hello Beautiful, I missed you." She looked up and smiled a confident grin as she replied, "Huh, took you long enough. I was starting to worry that maybe my uncle convinced you to break it off with me." Aang laughed a nervous laugh as he moved over to the bed and sat next to her. He leaned in and gave her a quick kiss on the lips. She tried to deepen it but Aang pulled back. She gave him a puzzled look and asked, "Is something wrong?" He shook his head and said, "No, it's just I've got some stuff I want to talk about." She said simply, "Oh, well let's hear it."

Aang took a deep breath and said, "First I've got a confession." She looked at him still with a confused expression. Aang continued, "So when I was in Ba Sing Se I went to meet your uncle and it all went down like we expected he told me you were no good and to stay away from you. So I told him off and then stormed out, but when I got back to my house Katara was there and uhhm." He swallowed nervously as he continued super fast; "So she kinda kissed me, I didn't want it to happen, and I pulled back pretty much as soon as it happened, I'm sorry Azula, I still love you, it didn't mean anything to me, I'm really sorry."

Azula started to laugh and Aang got a horrified and confused look on his face as she continued laughing. Aang said in a shaky voice; "Azula why are you laughing?" She stopped and replied, "I just think it's funny how nervous and worried you are. Do you still love me and want to be with me?" He said, "Of course Azula, you are my princess, you're my forever girl." She smiled then leaned in and kissed him. She pulled back smirking. She looked him in the eyes and then said, "I knew that, I'm not worried Aang. I'm confident in our relationship, she blew her chance with you, I don't plan on doing that."

He smiled and laughed then said, "Wow Azula, you took that well, I had a million nightmare scenarios running through my head including you kicking my ass." She smiled and said, "I still can if you want, so was that all you wanted to talk to me about?" He swallowed again nervously and said, "Actually there is one more thing it's kind of big. Don't feel any pressure and take all the time you need to answer." He reached into his robes and pulled out the purple box and opened it. Her golden eyes focused on the ring and Aang with sweat starting to form on his brow said, "Azula I love you. I know we're both very young but these past weeks have been the best of my life and I want it to continue for the rest of my days. This is a big step and I'll understand if you're not ready but…." Aang dropped down to his knee as he said, "Azula will you marry me."

She looked down at the ring, then looked in Aang's eyes as he was still on his knee shaking nervously as he awaited some sort of answer. She said, "Wow Aang, I never expected this." She held her hand out and said, "Well what are you waiting for avatar, get that ring on my finger, I accept." Aang felt like the weight of the world had been lifted from his shoulders as he heard her say yes. His mouth widened with the biggest grin of his life as he took the ring out of the box and slid it on Azula's finger.

She looked at the ring intently and said, "Wow Aang this ring is perfect where did you get it?" He smiled at her and said, "The Royal Jeweler in Caldera, it was the ring that Avatar Roku used to propose." She kept looking at it and said, "A royal family and avatar heirloom, how fitting for our relationship." He got up and pulled her into a tight hug, then kissed her very passionately on the lips. He pulled back and said, "Thanks Azula, you've made me so happy. I want to give you an early engagement present." She looked at him and said, "That's good Aang, I like presents, and it's a positive portent for our marriage." Aang grinned at her and said, "I doubt I'll ever have another one as good as this." She got an excited look on her face and said, "Ok avatar out with it I'm not good at waiting."

He kept the wide beaming smile on his face as he said, "Well it's not actually a present, but I know that more than anything you want to be Firelord so tomorrow we're going to fly to the palace and you're going to beat Zuko in an Agni Kai, then you'll be the Firelord, like you always should have been." He saw her eyes light up as one of those confident victorious grins that used to scare him but now he found devastatingly beautiful cross her face. She said, "Your right Aang, you'll never top that." She kissed him and then pulled him down on top of her onto the bed. His hand reached inside of her nightie as her legs wrapped around his waist and she whispered in his ear; "Now Avatar let's celebrate."

The End

AN: So that's it for Dreambending, my first foray into writing in several years. (Since I got out of college and got a job, yuck!) Thanks to everyone who had an interest in my story, I had a lot of fun writing it and I was glad to see so many people thought it was at least somewhat interesting and entertaining and really happy for those of you who raved about it. As I mentioned in earlier author's notes there will be a second part to this story I'll be starting to post in the near future, probably the first or second week of October. I haven't decided on the title yet, but if you just keep your eye out for new Aangzula romance stories I'm sure you'll find it. The next part will be a little different from this story. It will still mainly focus on Aang and Azula's engagement and perhaps wedding but there will be a B story line of Katara trying to find out why Aang and Azula are together, and she'll be actively trying to break them up. Once I get going on that I should be updating more frequently as I already have the plans for the first several chapters. Thanks everyone again, I hope since you finished this story you'll give my next one a read.


End file.
